Linux 6.1 Officially Promoted To Being An LTS Kernel

Linux 6.1 was widely anticipated to be a Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel with normally the last major release series for the calendar year normally promoted to LTS status. Greg Kroah-Hartman as the Linux stable maintainer went ahead today and formally recognized Linux 6.1 as the 2022 LTS kernel.

Greg KH was planning on Linux 6.1 being LTS given its December debut. But he was waiting on feedback from kernel stakeholders over their test results with Linux 6.1 and plans around using Linux 6.1 for the long-term. He's finally collected enough positive responses -- along with co-maintainer Sasha Levin -- that there is confidence in maintaining Linux 6.1 as an LTS series.

As of now the plan is on maintaining Linux 6.1 through December 2026, which is just a few months longer than the current Linux 5.15 LTS series that will be maintained through October 2026. We'll see over time if Linux 6.1 ends up potentially being maintained for the longer six-year LTS period that would put it through 2028. However, the number of Linux LTS series being maintained in tandem is growing and will ultimately depend upon how much these kernels are used by major industry players and how much commitment there is for testing of the point release candidates, etc. Initially Linux 6.1 LTS was marked as just a two-year LTS prior to being updated a second time today as a four-year maintenance period.

The Linux 6.1 LTS promotion was marked today on kernel.org.

See the Linux 6.1 feature overview for a look at all of the major changes found in this kernel that debuted as stable in December. With Linux 6.1 LTS now being officially confirmed, hopefully the likes of Debian 12 "Bookworm" will target this version.

Linux 6.2 as the next (non-LTS) kernel release is due out in a week and a half followed by kicking off the Linux 6.3 merge window.