Linux LTS Kernels Get Extended Support: 6.6, 6.12, and 6.18 Timelines Revised Upward

Linux LTS Kernels Get Extended Support: 6.6, 6.12, and 6.18 Timelines Revised Upward

February 25, 2026 — Greg Kroah-Hartman, the maintainer of the stable Linux kernel, has officially announced extended long-term support (LTS) periods for three active kernel branches: Linux 6.6, Linux 6.12, and Linux 6.18.

The news, shared today via a Mastodon post and reflected in a code commit updating the official LTS timeline documentation, is a welcome development for device manufacturers, enterprise users, and anyone depending on the stability of a long-lived kernel branch.

What Changed

The revisions affect the end-of-life (EOL) dates of three current LTS kernel series:

Linux 6.6 LTS — originally set to reach EOL in December 2026, its support window has been extended by one year to December 2027, giving it a total lifespan of four years.
Linux 6.12 LTS — also previously slated to end in December 2026, it has now been extended by two full years to December 2028, likewise a four-year support window.
Linux 6.18 LTS — initially announced with a two-year support window ending in December 2027, it has now been bumped to December 2028, representing at least three years of support. Kroah-Hartman noted that this date could be extended further depending on community and industry interest.

In his commit message updating the LTS timeline, Kroah-Hartman summarized the new landscape:

“Based on lots of discussions with different companies and groups and the other stable kernel maintainer, this moves to show that the current status is: 5.10 to be supported for 6 years, 5.15 to be supported for 5 years, 6.6 to be supported for 4 years, 6.12 to be supported for 4 years, 6.18 to be supported for at least 3 years.”

Why It Matters

The announcement is particularly significant given the backdrop of recent years, during which the Linux kernel community openly wrestled with maintainer burnout. Concerns were raised as far back as 2023 about whether the default LTS support window — long treated as six years in practice — was sustainable. Some voices in the community proposed reducing it to just two years to ease the burden on a small team of overworked maintainers who must continuously backport security fixes to multiple aging branches.

The new tiered approach represents a pragmatic compromise. Rather than applying a single blanket policy, the kernel team is now differentiating support lengths based on the age and strategic importance of each branch. Older series like 5.10 still enjoy the longest support, while newer ones like 6.18 are starting at a minimum of three years with room to grow if demand warrants it.

This matters enormously to the real world of hardware and enterprise software. Servers, embedded systems, industrial controllers, Android devices, and countless other platforms cannot casually upgrade their underlying kernel every two years. A predictable, multi-year support horizon allows manufacturers to commit to a kernel version at the start of a product’s lifecycle with confidence that security patches will keep flowing.

The Current LTS Landscape

For reference, here is the updated support picture across all active LTS branches as of today:

Kernel	Support Duration	EOL Date
Linux 5.10	~6 years	December 2026
Linux 5.15	~5 years	December 2026
Linux 6.1	~6 years	December 2027
Linux 6.6	4 years	December 2027
Linux 6.12	4 years	December 2028
Linux 6.18	At least 3 years	December 2028 (possibly longer)

Note that Linux 5.10 and 5.15 are approaching their EOL dates at the end of this year. Users still on these branches should begin planning migration paths to a supported series.

Looking Ahead

The Linux kernel world is also on the cusp of another milestone: Linus Torvalds announced on February 8, 2026, that the next major release will be versioned Linux 7.0, expected around April 2026. The current non-LTS kernel, Linux 6.19, was released on February 8, 2026, and will only be maintained for a few months before transitioning users toward 7.0.

For system administrators and platform engineers, today’s announcement is an opportunity to reassess kernel roadmaps. Those targeting long-term stability should consider anchoring to Linux 6.12 or 6.18, both of which now carry support commitments stretching to at least late 2028. For organizations already running 6.6, the one-year extension buys meaningful additional runway before a migration is required.

Sources: Phoronix, 9to5Linux, kernel.org commit history, Greg Kroah-Hartman via Mastodon.

Linux LTS Kernels Get Extended Support: 6.6, 6.12, and 6.18 Timelines Revised Upward