Last month’s Linux 6.12 kernel was a big update filled with new features, hardware support, and performance tune-ups. Now, it’s just gotten even sweeter: it’s an LTS!
Those au fait with kernel development won’t be surprised by this news since, typically, the final stable Linux kernel release of the year becomes an LTS.
But nothing is ever official until it’s official — and now it’s official!
Kernel dev Greg Kroah-Hartman confirmed Linux 6.12’s LTS status in a message on the Linux Kernel mailing list (LKML) about an older kernel version, stating his sufficiently succinct style:
Anyway, please move off to a more modern kernel if you were using this one for some reason. Like 6.12.y, the next LTS kernel we will be supporting for multiple years.
Greg Kroah-Hartman
As an LTS, Linux kernel 6.12 will benefit from ‘longterm maintenance’. This rarely brings new features but does involve back-porting of important and critical bug fixes as and when required for the duration of its given support window.
And how long is that?
A minimum of 2 years.
Linux 6.12 LTS will supported until December 2026. The support window may be extended if a kernel version is popular and widely used – and there’s the ‘people-power’ to support it. If not, it becomes end-of-life (EOL).
Community and distribution maintainers can continue to support any kernel version if they wish. Ubuntu does – it uses a distribution kernel, a modified version of the regular stable kernel with distro-specific patches and tweaks applied.
Still, with Linux 6.13 in the throes of its release candidate cadence process, and kernel devs already submitting changes for Linux 6.14 — the kernel version Ubuntu 25.04 will ship with in April — most of us wouldn’t want to stick with the same kernel for 2 years.
But for many, the LTS Linux kernel provides reliability and predictability.