Linux is a mostly free kernel similar to the Unix kernel. It is one of the main examples of free and open source software.
La OpenELA (Open Enterprise Linux Association), an association formed last year by CIQ (Rocky Linux), Oracle and SUSE (of which we talk here on the blog at the time) has come together to ensure compatibility with RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). Within this framework, have presented the kernel-lts project, which will provide additional support for some deprecated branches of LTS kernels after they stop receiving official support.
With the launch of this project, the version 4.14, will be the first kernel branch to receive this additional support (this Kernel version was released in November 2017 and has been supported for 6 years). In January, the kernel development team stopped maintaining this branch and OpenELA has taken over maintenance and updates for kernel 4.14 will be released until at least December 2024. Following the latest release of Linux kernel 4.14.336, the team of OpenELA has released the extended updates 4.14.337-openela, 4.14.338-openela and 4.14.339-openela.
Maintenance provided by OpenELA will follow the same rules and processes that apply to normal stable LTS kernels. There will be no additional restrictions, such as binding to specific teams or products. Updates will be released based on work tracking fixes in current kernel branches and migrating them to extended LTS branches maintained by OpenELA.
The OpenELA kernel-lts project is the first forum for enterprise Linux distribution vendors to pool our resources and collaborate on those older kernels after upstream support for those kernels ends,” said Greg Marsden, senior vice president, Oracle Linux. , Oracle. "Enterprise Linux distribution vendors contributing to the kernel-lts project have newer enterprise kernels that we recommend for most workloads."
“As enterprise distribution providers, we are often tasked with maintaining software viability even after community support ends,” said Gregory M. Kurtzer, CEO of CIQ. “We believe open collaboration is the best way to maintain critical business infrastructure. Through OpenELA, vendors, users, and the broader open source community can work together to deliver the longevity that professional IT organizations require for enterprise Linux.”
In addition to providing support for the LTS kernel branches, OpenELA maintains a repository with packages that can be used as a basis to create distributions that are fully binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, maintaining identical behavior (at the bug level) to RHEL and suitable for their use as RHEL replacements. This repository is jointly maintained by the development teams of distributions such as Rocky Linux, Oracle Linux, and SUSE Liberty Linux, all of which support RHEL. Includes the packages necessary to create distributions compatible with the RHEL 8 and 9 branches (with plans for RHEL 7 in the future). Notably, this repository replaced the git.centos.org repository, which was discontinued by Red Hat.
The Linux kernel developers continue to maintain various branches long term, each with its own support period:
- Branch 6.6: Supported until December 2026. This branch is used in Ubuntu 24.04.
- Branch 6.1: Supported until December 2026, with additional support within SLTS. This branch is used in Debian 12 and the main OpenWRT branch.
- Branch 5.15: Supported until October 2026. This branch is used in Ubuntu 22.04, Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 7 and OpenWRT 23.05.
- Branch 5.10: Supported until December 2026, with additional support within SLTS. This branch is used in Debian 11, Android 12 and OpenWRT 22.
- Branch 5.4: Supported until December 2025. This branch is used in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 6.
- Branch 4.19: Supported until December 2024, with additional support within SLTS. This branch is used in Debian 10 and Android 10.
Furthermore, the Linux Foundation provides SLTS branches (Super Long Term Support) based on Kernels 4.4, 4.19, 5.10 and 6.1. These SLTS branches are maintained separately and supported for extended periods of 10 to 20 years. The Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) project is responsible for maintaining these SLTS branches, with the participation of companies such as Toshiba, Siemens, Renesas, Bosch, Hitachi, MOXA, maintainers of the LTS branches of the main kernel, Debian developers and the KernelCI project . These SLTS branches are designed for application in technical systems of civil infrastructure and in critical industrial systems.
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