- Free and open-source, monolithic, Unix-like operating system kernel
- Conceived and created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds
- Leading open-source project with contributors worldwide
- Day-to-day development discussions take place on the Linux kernel mailing list (LKML)
- GPLv2 license
- Super-long-term support (SLTS) kernel, with planned support for at least ten years
| Version |
Date |
Latest version |
Projected EOL |
SLTS |
| 5.4 |
2019-11-24 |
5.4.13 |
Dec 2025 |
❌ |
| 4.19 |
2018-10-22 |
4.19.97 |
Dec 2024 |
✔️ |
| 4.14 |
2017-11-12 |
4.14.166 |
Jan 2024 |
❌ |
| 4.9 |
2016-12-11 |
4.9.210 |
Jan 2023 |
❌ |
| 4.4 |
2016-01-10 |
4.4.210 |
Feb 2022 |
✔️ |
| 3.16 |
2014-08-03 |
3.16.81 |
Jun 2020 |
❌ |
| Version |
Date |
Notes |
| 5.7 |
31 May 2020 (63 days) |
|
| 5.6 |
29 Mar 2020 (63 days) |
|
| 5.5 |
26 Jan 2020 (63 days) |
|
| 5.4 |
24 Nov 2019 (70 days) |
|
| 5.3 |
15 Sep 2019 (70 days) |
|
| 5.2 |
07 Jul 2019 (63 days) |
|
| 5.1 |
05 May 2019 (63 days) |
|
| 5.0 |
03 Mar 2019 (70 days) |
|
| 4.20 |
23 Dec 2018 (62 days) |
|
| 4.19 |
22 Oct 2018 (71 days) |
|
| 4.18 |
12 Aug 2018 (70 days) |
|
(Source: https://kernelnewbies.org/LinuxVersions)
- Many Linux distributions provide their own "long term maintenance" kernels
- May or may not be based on those maintained by kernel developers
- Not hosted at kernel.org
- Not supported by kernel developers