After a mere thirteen maintenance updates, Linux 6.5 kernel series has been labeled as EOL (End of Life) on the kernel.org site. This indicates that it will no longer receive support for bug and security fixes.
Linux kernel 6.5 saw its release by Linus Torvalds on August 27th, 2023, to mark the occasion of Linux’s 32nd birthday. It brought some thrilling new features such as Wi-Fi 7 support, MIDI 2.0 support in ALSA, ACPI support for the RISC-V architecture, Landlock support for UML (User-Mode Linux), in addition to AMD “Zen” system enhancements.
Today, precisely three months post its release, the well-known Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman confirmed the arrival of Linux kernel 6.5.13, that seems to be the final maintenance update in the Linux 6.5 kernel series. The series has now arrived at its end of life and it’s one among the few kernel series having only thirteenth point releases.
As per the norm, when a Linux kernel branch gets to its end of life, Greg Kroah-Hartman advises all users and distribution maintainers to think about upgrading to the latest stable kernel series at the earliest. For instance, those users operating on Linux kernel 6.5, should look into upgrading to Linux kernel 6.6 LTS.
“I’m announcing the release of the 6.5.13 kernel. All users of the 6.5 kernel series must upgrade. Note, this is the LAST 6.5.y kernel release. This branch is now end-of-life, all users must move to the 6.6.y kernel branch at this point in time,” said Greg Kroah-Hartman in the Linux kernel mailing list announcement.
Not only Linux 6.6 is the latest stable kernel release, but it’s also an LTS (Long-Term Support) branch that will be supported with bug and security fixes through regular maintenance updates for three years from the moment of writing, until December 2026.
Linux kernel 6.6 LTS was released on October 29th, 2023, with new features like Intel Shadow Stack support, a new task scheduler called EEVDF, improved support for Lenovo IdeaPad, HP, and ASUS devices, USB MIDI 2 gadget support, as well as numerous new and updated drivers for better hardware support.
Linux 6.6 LTS is already powering various popular GNU/Linux distributions, such as Arch Linux and openSUSE Tumbleweed, and it should soon be available in Fedora Linux 39. Ubuntu users can also install Linux kernel 6.6 LTS using our handy tutorial from here.
Last updated 4 hours ago