At the end of 2023, Linus Torvalds He launched Linux 6.6. There were still two months left in the year, and there was still time for another version of the kernel to be released in the last days of last year. In the end, with Christmas and one thing or another, what had to happen happened: 6.6, which arrived on October 30, was the last one of the year, and also the LTS for 2023. Linux 6.12 arrived Later, in mid-November of this year 2024, there will be no time for another iteration.
Therefore, and taking into account that it is rare the year in which there is no version supported for a little longer, it was expected that this honor would fall to Linux 6.12, which is currently the most up-to-date stable version. And the predictions have been fulfilled. this link kernel.org lead maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman and Sasha Levin have set December 2026 as the end-of-life date for 6.12, two years from now.
Linux 6.12 will be supported for at least two years
This is the same date that Linux 5.10, 5.15, 6.1 and 6.6 will stop receiving support, and it is the deadline that we have to keep in mind right now. However, there is the possibility that the time will be extended if Greg and Sasha decide so, news that is still to come and which, of course, we will report on if it happens.
LTS kernel versions are often the choice of many stability-oriented Linux distributions, such as Debian, for example. It is also the default version of distributions such as Manjaro, although in this case they also offer the possibility of installing newer kernels, if available, and even Release Candidates. It will no longer be necessary to install RT versions, as it is one of the most notable new features of Linux 6.12 — it already includes these patches that until now were used for multimedia tasks.