The FOSS community has a good track record of maintaining software long after new versions are released, but people can’t maintain operating systems forever. At some point you will need to remove the old version and redirect your efforts to the new version. Therefore, the Linux kernel has an end-of-support date, when that version is no longer supported.

Fortunately, although Linux kernels are released every few weeks, you can stick with a particular kernel for years before you need to upgrade. And the even better news is that some Linux kernel versions actually have one to two years of support, as companies and organizations ask for extensions.

Linux kernel 6.18, 6.12, and 6.6 EOL date postponed

6.12 is the real winner here, but

as discovered by linaniacGreg Kroah-Hartman announced that the end-of-life (EOL) dates for several Linux kernels have been extended. in their announcementcheck the following information:

Based on many discussions with various companies and groups and maintainers of other stable kernels, we find the current status to be:

• 5.10 will be supported for 6 years

• 5.15 will be supported for 5 years

• 6.6 will be supported for 4 years

• 6.12 will be supported for 4 years

• 6.18 will be supported for at least 3 years

Versions 5.10 and 5.15 maintain the old EOL date, while 6.6, 6.12, and 6.18 are slightly improved. In fact, 6.12 adds more years to the EOL date than the others.

So why the extra help in 6.12? Greg Kroah-Hartman doesn’t just distribute EOL extensions to every kernel. That will only happen if companies and groups adopt the kernel and are committed to supporting it. 6.12 is a bit of a perfect storm. Added PREEMPT_RT, which took 20 years to release, is the foundation for Debian 13 Trixie and RHEL 10, and supports Raspberry Pi 5. So a lot of people want 6.12 to continue, and Greg is here to make sure that happens. Thanks, Greg!