Speaking at the Linux Foundation’s virtual Open-Source Summit Europe, the Linux kernel maintainer for the stable branch, Greg Kroah-Hartman, unveiled that Linux 5.10 will be the next Long-Term Support (LTS) release. The existing LTS kernel is Linux 5.4 which was released in November 2019 and receives updates until December 2025.
Going by the last two LTS kernel releases, it’s expected that Linux 5.10 will be tended to until December 2026. The first release candidate of Linux 5.10 was released this past weekend and with several more to come, we should expect the stable version sometime in December.
The kernel is one of the most important components of any Linux system. New updates to the kernel allow new hardware devices to work and it’s also the vehicle for introducing improvements for file systems. Some updates in the 5.10 kernel include a fix for the XFS file system which will defer breakage in 2038 to the year 2486, Nintendo Switch controller support has been added, and support for Intel Rocket Lake, Alder Lake, Meteor Lake and AMD Zen 3 processors has been improved.
The new Linux 5.10 kernel could show up in one of the point releases for Ubuntu 20.04, however, by the time Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is ready, the next LTS kernel should be ready too. If you’d like to hear more about Linux 5.10 as it approaches, check LKML’s Hottest messages for weekly posts about the kernel from the project’s head, Linus Torvalds.
Source: Phoronix
