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Linux kernel version history

For broader coverage of this topic, see History of Linux.

This article documents the version history of the Linux kernel.

Each major version – identified by the first two numbers of a release version – is designated one of the following levels of support:

  • Supported until next stable version and 3 months after that
  • Long-term support (LTS); maintained for a few years[1]
  • Super-long-term support (SLTS); maintained for many more years by the Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP)[2]

Overview

Releases 6.x.y

Version Original release date Last release Maintainer EOL Prominent features Notes
Preview version: 6.17 TBA 6.17-rc7[3] Edit this on Wikidata Linus Torvalds
Latest version: 6.17 28 September 2025[4] Edit this on Wikidata 6.17[4] Edit this on Wikidata Greg Kroah-Hartman
Supported: 6.16 27 Jul 2025[5] 6.16.9[6]
Unsupported: 6.15 25 May 2025[7] 6.15.11[8] 20 August 2025
  • Btrfs: fast Zstd compression support[9]
Unsupported: 6.14 24 March 2025[10] 6.14.11[11] 10 June 2025[12]
Unsupported: 6.13 20 January 2025[16] 6.13.12[17] 20 April 2025[18]
  • New handheld support
  • Intel Arc B series support
Supported: 6.12 17 November 2024[19] 6.12.49[17] December 2036 25th LTS release[11]

5th SLTS with 10 years of support through 2035.[22] Used in Debian 13 "Trixie"[23][24] and RHEL 10.0 [25]

Unsupported: 6.11 15 September 2024[26] 6.11.11[27] 5 December 2024[27]
Unsupported: 6.10 14 July 2024[30] 6.10.14[17] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin 10 October 2024[31] Named "Baby Opossum Posse"[33]
Unsupported: 6.9 12 May 2024[1] 6.9.10[17] 27 July 2024[34]
  • Improved performance for Intel Core Ultra (Meteor Lake)[35]
  • Support for AMD P-State Preferred Cores[35]
  • Intel FRED (Flexible Return Event Delivery)[35]
  • Support for larger console frame-buffer fonts for 4K displays[35]
  • Faster boot times for systems with lots of RAM and using HugeTLBs[35]
  • DM VDO (Device Mapper Virtual Data Optimizer) mainlined[35]
  • Hibernate LZ4 compression support[36]
Unsupported: 6.8 10 March 2024[1] 6.8.12[17] 30 May 2024[37]
Unsupported: 6.7 8 January 2024[1] 6.7.12[17] 3 April 2024
  • Initial Bcachefs filesystem support[38]
  • Itanium support removed[38]
  • Intel Meteor Lake Graphics declared stable[38]
  • Initial Nouveau support for Nvidia GSP firmware[38]
  • Ability to disable IA-32 support at boot time on AMD64[39]
  • Expansion of AMD Seamless Boot Support[39]
  • Improvement in loading of x86 microcode[39]
  • Support for RAID stripe tree, simple quota accounting, and temporary FSID added to Btrfs[40]
  • JFS minor stability improvements[39]
 According to Linus Torvalds, "one of the largest kernel releases we've ever had"[38]
Supported: 6.6 29 October 2023[1] 6.6.108[17] December 2026
  • The new EEVDF process scheduler was merged. It aims to replace the CFS scheduler.
  • Intel Shadow Stack was finally merged; Exploiting ROPs is now harder
  • Support for Partial SMT
  • Performance Improvement for CPUs with a lot of cores and shared Last Level Caches
  • Continued Intel Meteor Lake graphics and sound enablement/improvements.
  • Better performance for Ext4; IO_uring also seeing cool improvements
  • DEFLATE compression support for EROFS.
 24th LTS release

The CFS scheduler was the de facto standard for 16+ years

ReiserFS is now declared to be obsolete and flagged for removal in 2025.

The one last minute change was made to the credits of ReiserFS as requested from the original developer.

Unsupported: 6.5 27 August 2023[1] 6.5.13[17] 28 November 2023[41]
Unsupported: 6.4 25 June 2023[1] 6.4.16[17] 13 September 2023[43]
Unsupported: 6.3 23 April 2023[1] 6.3.13[17] 11 July 2023[47]
  • Even more Rust in the kernel
  • Initial Support for Intel Meteor Lake Display
  • Intel Meteor Lake VPUs ("Versatile Processing Unit") support
  • AMD Automatic IBRS
  • Intel TPMI driver was merged, hopes are this will give more control over power management.
  • Big Performance Improvement for EXT4. Nice Improvements for BTRFS too
  • IPv4 BIG TCP support, maybe better network performance
  • Microsoft Hyper-V nested hypervisor support.
  • Faster kernel builds and with lower peak memory use.
  • Removed support for the Intel ICC compiler.
Unsupported: 6.2 19 February 2023[1] 6.2.16[17] 17 May 2023[48]
  • Intel Arc drivers are now deemed "stable" and on by default.
  • Initial FOSS support for NVIDIA GeForce 30 Series. But performance is poor for now.
  • Support for Apple's M1
  • Call Depth Tracking as a better performance alternative to IBRS for older Intel CPUs
  • Some Power-savings improvements when the system is idle or lightly loaded.
  • Support for running Raspberry Pi in 4K@60Hz
  • Better performance and scalability for running RAID5/6 in btrfs-like systems
  • More Rust in the kernel
Supported: 6.1 11 December 2022[49] 6.1.154[17] December 2027[1]

August 2033[50]

23rd LTS release
Used in Debian 12 "Bookworm"[55]

4th SLTS release (which CIP[56] is planning[50] to support until August 2033)

6.1.28 is named Curry Ramen[57]

Unsupported: 6.0 2 October 2022[58] 6.0.19[59] January 2023[59]
  • Performance improvements on Intel Xeon 'Ice Lake', AMD Ryzen 'Threadripper', AMD EPYC[60]
  • New hardware support including Intel, AMD, Qualcomm[61]
 Named "Hurr durr I'ma [sic] ninja sloth"[62]
Legend:
Unsupported
Supported
Latest version
Preview version

Releases 5.x.y

Version Original release date Last release Maintainer EOL Prominent features Notes
Unsupported: 5.19 31 July 2022[63] 5.19.17[64] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin[1] October 2022[64]
  • Initial support for LoongArch[65][66]
  • Support for Big TCP[65][66]
  • More secure encrypted virtualization with AMD SEV-SNP and Intel TDX[65][66]
  • Armv9 Scalable Matrix Extension support[66]
  • Introduce Intel In-Field Scan driver to run targeted low level diagnostics outside of the CPU's architectural error detection capabilities[65]
  • a.out support removed[67]
Unsupported: 5.18 22 May 2022[68] 5.18.19[69] August 2022[69]
  • Support for Indirect Branch Tracking[70] on Intel CPUs[71]
  • User events[72]
  • fprobe, for probing multiple functions with a single probe handler[73]
  • Headers rearchitecturing preparations for faster compilation times[74]
  • Stricter memcpy() compile-time bounds checking[75]
  • Switch to C11[76]
Unsupported: 5.17 20 March 2022[77] 5.17.15[78] June 2022[78]
  • BPF CO-RE support[79][80]
  • Random number generator improvements[81]
  • New Real-Time Linux Analysis (RTLA) tool[82]
  • Support giving names to anonymous memory[83]
  • Mitigate straight-line speculation attacks[84]
 Used in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on newer hardware[85]

Named Superb Owl[86]

Unsupported: 5.16 9 January 2022[87] 5.16.20[88] April 2022[88]
  • New futex_waitv() system call for faster game performance[89]
  • Memory folios infrastructure for a faster memory management[90]
  • Add support for AMX instructions[91]
  • Improve write congestion[92]
Supported: 5.15 31 October 2021[93] 5.15.193[17] December 2026[1]
  • New experimental[94] NTFS file system implementation
  • ksmbd, an in-kernel SMB 3 server
  • Migrate memory pages to persistent memory in lieu of discard[95]
  • DAMON, a data access monitor
  • Introduce process_mrelease(2) system call[96]
 22nd LTS release; used in

Named Trick or Treat[99]

Unsupported: 5.14 29 August 2021[100] 5.14.21[101] Greg Kroah-Hartman November 2021[101] Used in RHEL 9.x and derivatives[102] (Redhat ignores LTS-Kernel, own kernel-backports) and SLE 15 SP4/openSUSE Leap 15.4
Unsupported: 5.13 27 June 2021[103] 5.13.19[104] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin September 2021[104] Named Opossums on Parade
Unsupported: 5.12 25 April 2021[107] 5.12.19[108] Greg Kroah-Hartman July 2021[108] Named Frozen Wasteland[109][110]
Unsupported: 5.11 14 February 2021[111] 5.11.22[112] May 2021[112] Named "💕 Valentine's Day Edition 💕"[113]
Supported: 5.10 13 December 2020[114] 5.10.244[17] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin[1] December 2026[1][115]

January 2031[50]

  • Support for ARM64 memory tagging extension (MTE)[116]
 21st LTS release; used in Debian 11 "Bullseye"[117]

3rd SLTS release (which CIP[118] is planning[50] to support until January 2031)

Named "Dare mighty things"[119]

Unsupported: 5.9 11 October 2020[120] 5.9.16[121] Greg Kroah-Hartman December 2020[121]
Unsupported: 5.8 2 August 2020[122] 5.8.18[123] November 2020[123]
Unsupported: 5.7 31 May 2020[124] 5.7.19[125] August 2020[125]
Unsupported: 5.6 29 March 2020[126] 5.6.19[127] June 2020[127]
Unsupported: 5.5 26 January 2020[129] 5.5.19[130] April 2020[130]
Supported: 5.4 24 November 2019[131] 5.4.299[17] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin[1] December 2025[1] 20th LTS release, used in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
5.4-rc2 is named Nesting Opossum[132]

5.4-rc5 is named Kleptomaniac Octopus[133]

Unsupported: 5.3 15 September 2019[134] 5.3.18[135] Greg Kroah-Hartman December 2019[135]
Unsupported: 5.2 7 July 2019[136] 5.2.20[137] October 2019[137] 5.2-rc2 is named Golden Lions[138][139]

5.2 is named Bobtail Squid[140]

Unsupported: 5.1 5 May 2019[141] 5.1.21[142] July 2019[142]
Unsupported: 5.0 3 March 2019[144] 5.0.21[145] June 2019[145]
Legend:
Unsupported
Supported

Releases 4.x.y

Version Original release date Last release Maintainer EOL Prominent features Notes
Unsupported: 4.20 23 December 2018[146] 4.20.17[147] Greg Kroah-Hartman March 2019[147] Named Shy Crocodile[148]
Unsupported: 4.19 22 October 2018[149] 4.19.325[17]4.19-st6[150] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin[1]

Ulrich Hecht & Pavel Machek[50]

December 2024[1][151]

January 2029[50]

19th LTS release. Used in Debian 10 "Buster".[152] Second SLTS release (which CIP is planning[50] to support until January 2029), and first with ARM64 support.[153] Named "People's Front"[154]
Unsupported: 4.18 12 August 2018[155] 4.18.20[156] Greg Kroah-Hartman November 2018[156] RHEL 8.x (Redhat ignores LTS-Kernel, own kernel-backports)
Unsupported: 4.17 3 June 2018[157] 4.17.19[158] August 2018[158] Named Merciless Moray[159]
Unsupported: 4.16 1 April 2018[160] 4.16.18[161] June 2018[161]
Unsupported: 4.15 28 January 2018[162] 4.15.18[163] April 2018[163] Used in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Unsupported: 4.14 12 November 2017[164] 4.14.336[165] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin[1] January 2024[165] 18th LTS release

4.14.1 is named Petit Gorille[167]

Unsupported: 4.13 3 September 2017[168] 4.13.16[169] Greg Kroah-Hartman November 2017[169]
Unsupported: 4.12 2 July 2017[170] 4.12.14[171] September 2017[171]
Unsupported: 4.11 30 April 2017[173] 4.11.12[174] July 2017[174]
Unsupported: 4.10 19 February 2017[175] 4.10.17[176] May 2017[176] 4.10-rc5 was named Anniversary Edition[177]

4.10-rc6 was named Fearless Coyote[178]

Unsupported: 4.9 11 December 2016[179] 4.9.337[17] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin[1] January 2023[1][180] 17th LTS release. Used in Debian 9 "Stretch".[181] Named Roaring Lionus[182][183]
Unsupported: 4.8 25 September 2016[184] 4.8.17[185] Greg Kroah-Hartman January 2017[185]
Unsupported: 4.7 24 July 2016[186] 4.7.10[187] October 2016[187] Named Psychotic Stoned Sheep[191]
Unsupported: 4.6 15 May 2016[192] 4.6.7[193] August 2016[193] Named Charred Weasel[194]
Unsupported: 4.5 13 March 2016[195] 4.5.7[196] June 2016[197]
Unsupported: 4.4 10 January 2016[198] 4.4.302[199]4.4-st66[150] Greg Kroah-Hartman & Sasha Levin[1]

Ulrich Hecht & Pavel Machek[50]

February 2022[199]

January 2027[50]

16th LTS release, used in Slackware 14.2.[200] Canonical provided extended support until April 2021.[201] As the first kernel selected for Super Long Term Support (SLTS), the Civil Infrastructure Platform will provide support until at least 2026.[2] Used in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Unsupported: 4.3 1 November 2015[202] 4.3.6[203] Greg Kroah-Hartman February 2016[204] Named Blurry Fish Butt[205][206]
Unsupported: 4.2 30 August 2015[207] 4.2.8[208] December 2015[208] Canonical provided extended support until July 2016.[209][210]
Unsupported: 4.1 22 June 2015[211] 4.1.52[212] Sasha Levin[1][213] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman)[214] May 2018[212] 15th LTS release. 4.1.1 was named Series 4800[215]
Unsupported: 4.0 12 April 2015[216] 4.0.9[217] Greg Kroah-Hartman July 2015[218] Named "Hurr durr I'ma [sic] sheep"[220] (Internet poll)
Legend:
Unsupported
Supported

Releases 3.x.y

The jump from 2.6.x to 3.x wasn't because of a breaking update, but rather the first release of a new versioning scheme introduced as a more convenient system.[221]

Version Original release date Last release Maintainer EOL Prominent features Notes
Unsupported: 3.19 8 February 2015[222] 3.19.8[223] Greg Kroah-Hartman May 2015[223] Canonical provided extended support until July 2016.[209][224]
Unsupported: 3.18 7 December 2014[225] 3.18.140[226] Greg Kroah-Hartman[227] (formerly Sasha Levin[228]) (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) January 2017[229] 14th LTS release, named Diseased Newt[232]
Unsupported: 3.17 5 October 2014[233] 3.17.8[234] Greg Kroah-Hartman January 2015[234]
Unsupported: 3.16 3 August 2014[235] 3.16.85[236] Ben Hutchings[1][237] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) Maintained until October 2014, then May 2016 to June 2020[236][1][238] 13th LTS release. Was used in Debian 8 "Jessie".[239] Canonical provided extended support until April 2016.[209][240]

3.16.1 was named Museum of Fishiegoodies[241]

Unsupported: 3.15 8 June 2014[242] 3.15.10[243] Greg Kroah-Hartman August 2014[243]
Unsupported: 3.14 30 March 2014[245] 3.14.79[246] Greg Kroah-Hartman[1] August 2016[246] 12th LTS release, named Shuffling Zombie Juror[248]
Unsupported: 3.13 19 January 2014[249] 3.13.11[250] Greg Kroah-Hartman April 2014[250] Canonical provided extended support until April 2016.[209][251] Named One Giant Leap for Frogkind[252] (NASA LADEE launch photo)[253] Used in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Unsupported: 3.12 3 November 2013[254] 3.12.74[255] Jiří Slabý[1][256] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) May 2017[256][255] 11th LTS release, named Suicidal Squirrel[257]
Unsupported: 3.11 2 September 2013[258] 3.11.10[259] Greg Kroah-Hartman November 2013[259] Canonical provided extended support until August 2014.[209] Named Linux for Workgroups after the 20 years of Windows 3.11[261]
Unsupported: 3.10 30 June 2013[262] 3.10.108[263] Willy Tarreau[1][264] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) November 2017[263] 10th LTS release,
3.10.6 was named TOSSUG Baby Fish[266][267][268] used in Slackware 14.1[269]

RHEL 7.x

Unsupported: 3.9 28 April 2013[270] 3.9.11[271] Greg Kroah-Hartman July 2013[271] 3.9.6 was named Black Squirrel Wakeup Call[275]
Unsupported: 3.8 18 February 2013[276] 3.8.13[277] Greg Kroah-Hartman May 2013[277] Canonical provided extended support until August 2014.[209][280]

Named Unicycling Gorilla[281][282]
3.8.5 was named Displaced Humerus Anterior[283]

Unsupported: 3.7 10 December 2012[284] 3.7.10[285] Greg Kroah-Hartman March 2013[285][286] Named Terrified Chipmunk[288][289]
Unsupported: 3.6 30 September 2012[290] 3.6.11[291] Greg Kroah-Hartman December 2012[291]
  • Initial support of send/receive and sub-volume quotas for Btrfs[292]
Unsupported: 3.5 21 July 2012[293] 3.5.7[294] Greg Kroah-Hartman October 2012[294] Canonical provided extended support until April 2014.[209][295]
Unsupported: 3.4 20 May 2012[296][297] 3.4.113[298] Li Zefan[1][299] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) October 2016[300] 9th LTS release
Unsupported: 3.3 18 March 2012[301] 3.3.8[302] Greg Kroah-Hartman June 2012[302]
Unsupported: 3.2 4 January 2012[303] 3.2.102[304] Ben Hutchings[1][305] May 2018[306] 8th LTS release, used in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS[307] and optionally in 12.04 ESM,[308] Debian 7 "Wheezy" and Slackware 14.0.[1][305] Canonical promised to (at least) provide long-term support until April 2017;[209] Support has continued for months after.

3.2 to 3.5 was named Saber-toothed Squirrel[309]

Unsupported: 3.1 24 October 2011[310] 3.1.10[311] Greg Kroah-Hartman January 2012[311] 3.1 provided the base for real-time tree.
3.1-rc2 was named Wet Seal
3.1 was named Divemaster Edition[312] (Linus' diving activities)
Unsupported: 3.0 21 July 2011[221] 3.0.101[313] Greg Kroah-Hartman[314] October 2013[313][314] 7th LTS release
Named Sneaky Weasel[316][317]
Legend:
Unsupported

Releases 2.6.x.y

Versions 2.6.16 and 2.6.27 of the Linux kernel were unofficially given long-term support (LTS),[318] before a 2011 working group in the Linux Foundation started a formal long-term support initiative.[319][320]

Version Original release date Last release Maintainer EOL Prominent features Notes
Unsupported: 2.6.39 18 May 2011[321] 2.6.39.4[322] Greg Kroah-Hartman August 2011[322] Last stable release of the 2.6 kernel series
Unsupported: 2.6.38 14 March 2011[323] 2.6.38.8[324] June 2011[324] Named Flesh-Eating Bats with Fangs[325]
Unsupported: 2.6.37 4 January 2011[326] 2.6.37.6[327] March 2011[327]
Unsupported: 2.6.36 20 October 2010[328] 2.6.36.4[329] February 2011[329]
Unsupported: 2.6.35 1 August 2010[331] 2.6.35.14[332] Andi Kleen[333] March 2012[333] 6th LTS release
2.6.35.7 was named Yokohama
Unsupported: 2.6.34 16 May 2010[334] 2.6.34.15[335] Paul Gortmaker[336] February 2014[335][336] 5th LTS release
It was named Sheep on Meth[337][338]
Unsupported: 2.6.33 24 February 2010[339] 2.6.33.20[340] Greg Kroah-Hartman[341] November 2011[340] 4th LTS release. It was the base for real-time-tree, replaced by 3.0.x.[341]
Unsupported: 2.6.32 2 December 2009[343] 2.6.32.71[344] Willy Tarreau[1][345] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman)[346][347] March 2016[1] 3rd LTS release, used in Debian 6 Squeeze.[349] Canonical also provided support until April 2015.[209]

RHEL 6.x

Unsupported: 2.6.31 9 September 2009[350] 2.6.31.14[351] Greg Kroah-Hartman July 2010[351]
Unsupported: 2.6.30 9 June 2009[353] 2.6.30.9[354] October 2009[354] 2.6.30-rc4–2.6.30-rc6 was named

Vindictive Armadillo[356][357]
Releases between 2.6 and 2.9 were named 2.Man-Eating Seals of Antiquity[358]

Unsupported: 2.6.29 23 March 2009[359] 2.6.29.6[360] July 2009[360] Named Temporary Tasmanian Devil[362][363]
Unsupported: 2.6.28 24 December 2008[364] 2.6.28.10[365] May 2009[365] 2.6.28-rc1–2.6.28-rc6 was named Killer Bat of Doom[367][368]

2.6.28 was named Erotic Pickled Herring[369]

Unsupported: 2.6.27 9 October 2008[370] 2.6.27.62[371] Willy Tarreau[372] (formerly Adrian Bunk,[373] and formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman) March 2012[373] 2nd LTS release
2.6.27.3 was named Trembling Tortoise[374]
Unsupported: 2.6.26 13 July 2008[375] 2.6.26.8[376] Greg Kroah-Hartman November 2008[376] 2.6.26–2.6.27 was named Rotary Wombat[377]
Unsupported: 2.6.25 16 April 2008[378] 2.6.25.20[379] November 2008[379] Named Funky Weasel is Jiggy wit it[381]
Unsupported: 2.6.24 24 January 2008[382] 2.6.24.7[383] May 2008[383] 2.6.23-rc4–2.6.23-rc6 was named Pink Farting Weasel[385]

2.6.23-rc7–2.6.23–2.6.24 was named Arr Matey! A Hairy Bilge Rat![386] (TLAPD 2007)
2.6.24.1 was named Err Metey! A Heury Beelge-a Ret![387]

Unsupported: 2.6.23 9 October 2007[388] 2.6.23.17[389] February 2008[389]
Unsupported: 2.6.22 8 July 2007[391] 2.6.22.19[392] February 2008[392] 2.6.22-rc3–2.6.22-rc4 was named Jeff Thinks I Should Change This, But To What?

2.6.22-rc5–2.6.22 was named Holy Dancing Manatees, Batman![394]

Unsupported: 2.6.21 25 April 2007[395] 2.6.21.7[396] August 2007[396] Named Nocturnal Monster Puppy[398]
Unsupported: 2.6.20 4 February 2007[399] 2.6.20.21[400] October 2007[400] Named Homicidal Dwarf Hamster[402][403]
Unsupported: 2.6.19 29 November 2006[404] 2.6.19.7[405] March 2007[405] Named Avast! A bilge rat! (TLAPD 2006)[409]
Unsupported: 2.6.18 20 September 2006[410] 2.6.18.8[411] February 2007[411]

2.6.18: RHEL 5.x

Unsupported: 2.6.17 17 June 2006[413] 2.6.17.14[414] October 2006[414] 2.6.17-rc5 was named Lordi Rules[416] (Eurovision 2006 winners)[417]

2.6.17-rc6–2.6.17 was named Crazed Snow-Weasel[418]

Unsupported: 2.6.16 20 March 2006[419] 2.6.16.62[420] Adrian Bunk[421] (formerly Greg Kroah-Hartman)[346] July 2008[422][420] 1st LTS release
2.6.16.28-rc2 was named Stable Penguin
Unsupported: 2.6.15 2 January 2006[424] 2.6.15.7[425] Greg Kroah-Hartman May 2006[425] Named Sliding Snow Leopard[427]
Unsupported: 2.6.14 27 October 2005[428] 2.6.14.7[429] January 2006[429] Named Affluent Albatross[431]
Unsupported: 2.6.13 28 August 2005[432] 2.6.13.5[433] December 2005[433] Named Woozy Numbat[435][436]The 2.6.12 release was the first one managed by Git.[437]
Unsupported: 2.6.12 18 June 2005[438] 2.6.12.6[439][440] August 2005[439]
Unsupported: 2.6.11 2 March 2005[441] 2.6.11.12[442] June 2005[442]
Unsupported: 2.6.10 24 December 2004[443]
  • Switchable and modular I/O schedulers[444]
Unsupported: 2.6.9 19 October 2004[445]
Unsupported: 2.6.8 14 August 2004[446]
Unsupported: 2.6.7 16 June 2004[447]
Unsupported: 2.6.6 10 May 2004[448]
Unsupported: 2.6.5 4 April 2004[450]
Unsupported: 2.6.4 11 March 2004[452]
Unsupported: 2.6.3 18 February 2004[454]
Unsupported: 2.6.2 4 February 2004[456]
Unsupported: 2.6.1 9 January 2004[458]
Unsupported: 2.6 17 December 2003[460] Linus Torvalds December 2004[461] 2.6.2–2.6.4 was named Feisty Dunnart[465]
2.6.5–2.6.9 was named Zonked Quokka[466]2.6.9: RHEL 4.x

The 2.5 kernels were development kernels[467]

Legend:
Unsupported

Releases before 2.6.0

Version Original release date Last release Maintainer EOL Prominent features Notes
Unsupported: 2.4 4 January 2001[468] 2.4.37.11[469] Willy Tarreau (formerly Marcelo Tosatti) December 2011[469]

The 2.3 kernels were development kernels[467]
2.4.9: RHEL 2.1
2.4.10: Featured a complete rewrite of the Virtual Memory Management (VMM) subsystem.[474]
2.4.21: RHEL 3.x

Unsupported: 2.2 26 January 1999[475] 2.2.26[476] Marc-Christian Petersen (formerly Alan Cox)[477] Made unofficially obsolete with the 2.2.27-rc2[478][479] The 2.1 kernels were development kernels[467]
Unsupported: 2.0 9 June 1996[484] 2.0.40[485] David Weinehall officially made obsolete with the kernel 2.2.0 release[486] Larry Ewing created the Tux mascot in 1996
Unsupported: 1.3 12 June 1995 1.3.100[488] Linus Torvalds EOL Greased Weasel[494]
Unsupported: 1.2 7 March 1995 1.2.13 Linux '95[495]
Unsupported: 1.1 6 April 1994 1.1.95
Unsupported: 1.0 14 March 1994 1.0.9
Unsupported: 0.99 13 December 1992 0.99.15j[499] The Linux 0.99 tar.bz2 archive grew from 426 kB to 1009 kB on the way to 1.0.
Unsupported: 0.98 29 September 1992 0.98.6[502]
Unsupported: 0.97 1 August 1992 0.97.6[504]
Unsupported: 0.96 22 May 1992 0.96c.2[508]
Unsupported: 0.95 8 March 1992 0.95c+[510] Jump from 0.12 to 0.95[513]

First version released under the GPL[512][514]

Unsupported: 0.12 15 January 1992
Unsupported: 0.11 8 December 1991
  • Demand-loading from disk[515]
 First kernel where other people start making real contributions[515]
Unsupported: 0.10 November 1991 Jump from 0.03 to 0.10

First release where Minix isn't needed anymore[517]

Unsupported: 0.03 October 1991[517]
Unsupported: 0.02 5 October 1991 First "usable" release; for wider distribution[518]
Unsupported: 0.01 17 September 1991
Legend:
Unsupported

See also

References

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