Linux kernel version history

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See also: History of Linux

The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was conceived and created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds.[1]

Linux kernels have different support level depending on version. Version 4.4, released in January 2016, was declared to have Long-Term Support (LTS). It has six years of support that way, but it was also defined to have Super Long Term Support (SLTS), i.e. Civil Infrastructure Platform will provide support (for 32-bit ARM and x86-64 only) until at least 2026, possibly until 2036.[2] It is currently the oldest supported version.

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Releases 5.x.y[]

Version Original release date Current version Maintainer EOL Notes
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.0 3 March 2019[3] 5.0.21[4] Greg Kroah-Hartman June 2019[4]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.1 5 May 2019[5] 5.1.21[6] Greg Kroah-Hartman July 2019[6]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.2 7 July 2019[7] 5.2.20[8] Greg Kroah-Hartman October 2019[8] 5.2-rc2 is named Golden Lions[9][10]

5.2 is named Bobtail Squid[11]

Old version, no longer maintained: 5.3 15 September 2019[12] 5.3.18[13] Greg Kroah-Hartman December 2019[13]
Older version, yet still maintained: 5.4 24 November 2019[14] 5.4.185[15] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin[16] December 2025[16] 20th LTS release, used in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
5.4-rc2 is named Nesting Opossum[17]

5.4-rc5 is named Kleptomaniac Octopus[18]

Old version, no longer maintained: 5.5 26 January 2020[19] 5.5.19[20] Greg Kroah-Hartman April 2020[20]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.6 29 March 2020[21] 5.6.19[22] Greg Kroah-Hartman June 2020[22]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.7 31 May 2020[23] 5.7.19[24] Greg Kroah-Hartman August 2020[24]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.8 2 August 2020[25] 5.8.18[26] Greg Kroah-Hartman November 2020[26]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.9 11 October 2020[27] 5.9.16[28] Greg Kroah-Hartman December 2020[28]
Older version, yet still maintained: 5.10 13 December 2020[29] 5.10.106[15] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin[16] December 2026[16][30] 21st LTS release; used in Debian 11 "Bullseye"[31]

3rd SLTS release;[32] 5.10.19 is named Dare mighty things[33]

Old version, no longer maintained: 5.11 14 February 2021[34] 5.11.22[35] Greg Kroah-Hartman May 2021[35] Named "
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