Linux Kernel Long-Term Support Cycle Reduced to Two Years

The Linux kernel community has announced a significant change to its long-term support (LTS) cycle. Until now, the LTS kernel versions had a six-year lifespan, with the current released versions 6.1, 5.15, 5.10, 5.4, 4.19, and 4.14 still following this pattern. However, going forward, the LTS cycle will be reduced to two years. This change was revealed by Jonathan Corbet, a Linux kernel developer and editor of Linux Weekly News, at the recent European Open Source Summit in Bilbao, Spain.

This change will impact the support cycle of future Linux kernel versions. The community has expressed its preference for the 6.1 LTS kernel, which has led to its lifespan being extended to 2027. In fact, the maintainer of the kernel, Greg Kroah-Hartman, recently signed a proposal to give the 6.1 LTS kernel an additional year of support, taking it through to the end of 2027.

The reduced LTS cycle is expected to have a significant impact on the Linux ecosystem. With only two years of support for new kernel versions, users and administrators will need to update their systems more frequently to stay secure and receive the latest features and bug fixes. This may result in additional costs and complexity for some organizations.

On the other hand, the community sees this change as an opportunity to streamline the development and maintenance process. With fewer kernel versions to support, the community can focus on developing new features and fixing bugs, leading to a faster pace of innovation.

The Linux kernel community is still committed to supporting the currently released LTS versions, so users can continue to use these versions until their natural end of life. However, for new kernel versions, the reduced LTS cycle will be the new norm. As the Linux community continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how this change impacts the ecosystem and the adoption of new kernel versions.

Source: [Ithome](https://www.ithome.com/0/818/351.htm)

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