The Linux kernel is the backbone of Linux operating systems (OS), and is the fundamental interface between a computer's hardware and its processes.
Without a doubt one of the versions of the Linux Kernel that will go down in history will be Linux 6.1 and not precisely because of the title of the article, but it is the first version of Linux that adopts a second programming language with which it is intended to gradually modernize the Kernel.
Many Linux users and even readers who are up to date on the changes and news of the penguin know what we are talking about. But for those who still don't know about it, the reason is Rust, Yes, that modern programming language that has reached Linux and that everything indicates that it will involve many changes and improvements from now on in the Kernel.
Returning to the part of the title, recently the Linux Foundation unveiled through an advertisement long-term support for the Linux 6.1 kernel branch, in which support will be provided under the SLTS program (Super Long Term Support), which, unlike LTS (Long Term Support) versions, implies a longer support cycle, focused on the use of the kernel in technical systems of civil infrastructure and in critical industrial systems.
“CIP cores are developed and reviewed with the same meticulous attention as regular long-term stable (LTS) cores,” said Yoshi Kobayashi, TSC chair of the CIP project.
«Our developers are actively involved in the review and testing of LTS cores, contributing to the overall quality and security of the platform. “A key highlight is our work on the IEC 62443 security standard, which aims to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure systems.”
The SLTS branch will be maintained by the “Civil Infrastructure Platform” (CIP) project, who operates under the auspices of the Linux Foundation and is being developed with the participation of several renowned companies. In addition to the representatives of the mentioned companies, the maintainers of the LTS branches of the main kernel, Debian developers and the creators of the KernelCI project will participate in the maintenance of the SLTS kernel.
In its announcement, the Linux Foundation mentions thatUpdates for the Linux 6.1 branch will be released for at least 10 years, during which time not only will fixes affecting reliability and security be pushed to the kernel, but they will also be backed from newer enhancement branches to support new hardware. Previously, a similar extended maintenance cycle was applied to kernels 4.4, 4.19, and 5.10.
With this announcement, Linux 6.1 joins the list of supported LTS branches:
- Linux 6.1 – until December 2026 + support within SLTS (used in Debian 12 and the main OpenWRT branch).
- Linux 5.15: until October 2026 (used on Ubuntu 22.04, Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 7, and OpenWRT 23.05).
- Linux 5.10 – until December 2026 + support within SLTS (used in Debian 11, Android 12 and OpenWRT 22).
- Linux 5.4 – until December 2025 (used on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 6)
- Linux 4.19 – until December 2024 + support within SLTS (used in Debian 10 and Android 10).
- Linux 4.14 – until January 2024.
It is worth mentioning that This announcement revives the issue of one of the most serious problems thatthat affect Linux, which is the maintenance of LTS branches As the years go by, there are more and more versions and the time they are supported is longer.
As mentioned in a post here on the blog, about what development of LTS versions of Linux could be shortened, it is because the main problem is the load on the maintainers, since andBurnout is considered one of the most serious problems within the kernel development community.
And as mentioned in the article, despite the support from corporations, volunteers out of interest and in this case Linux 6.1 in which a project takes charge of long-term maintenance, It is still a topic on which Linux developers have put a red light on and which they want to solve as soon as possible.
Finally, personally, one of the possible solutions that has already been proposed is cutting maintenance time, or failing that, limiting the number of LTS versions that must be supported to 2 or 3.
If you are interested in learning more about it, you can check the details in the following link