TheRegister: Linux to gain longer-term support

TheRegister: Linux to gain longer-term support

El Register reports that the Linux kernel is gaining a longer-term support model. Their article indicates that Greg Kroah-Hartman is planning on a six-year term for the various kernel long-term releases.

Currently, Linux kernels have a two-year life in the Long-Term Support queue, before being retired. This support period isn't enough for Google, who need longer-term support for Android phones, among others. The process of releasing a new phone often burns through most of the support time of a kernel. And with changes in kernel revisions mean possible code changes to support changed calls, moving kernels can be an effort to keep the bloatware up to date.

So backporting fixes from the current kernels into the LTS kernels will improve . It should also mean a potentially longer life for some phones. However, given the regularity (or rather not) in which manufacturers and carriers release new code to phones once they've hit peak market share; I think that's not realistically going to happen.

John Dixon

John Dixon is the Principal Consultant of thirteen-ten nanometre networks Ltd, based in Wiltshire, United Kingdom. He has a wide range of experience, (including, but not limited to) operating, designing and optimizing systems and networks for customers from global to domestic in scale. He has worked with many international brands to implement both data centres and wide-area networks across a range of industries. He is currently supporting a major SD-WAN vendor on the implementation of an environment supporting a major global fast-food chain.

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