The latest Linux 4.4 LTS release is Linux kernel 4.4.2

Feb 20, 2016 01:45 GMT  ·  By

After announcing the release of the long-term supported Linux 4.4.2 and Linux 3.14.61 kernels, Greg Kroah-Hartman informs the Linux community on February 19, 2016, about the imminent end-of-life (EOL) for the Linux 4.3 kernel branch.

As some of you may know, Linux 4.3 was not an LTS (Long Term Support) release, so the last maintenance build is now Linux kernel 4.3.6, as announced earlier by Mr. Kroah-Hartman, a renowned kernel developer and maintainer.

While he's telling users of the Linux 4.3 series to update to the 4.3.6 point release, he also urges them, especially OS vendors, to move to the most advanced stable series, in this case, Linux kernel 4.4 LTS, which just received its second point release the other day.

"I'm announcing the release of the 4.3.6 kernel. All users of the 4.3 kernel series must upgrade," said Greg Kroah-Hartman in the announcement. "Note, this is the LAST 4.3.y kernel to be released. This kernel branch is now end-of-life. Move to 4.4.y right now."

What's new in Linux kernel 4.3.6

Looking at the appended shortlog, it appears that Linux kernel 4.3.6 is quite an update, as it changes a total of 197 files, with 2310 insertions and 963 deletions, and it is here for those who still use a Linux kernel-based operating system powered by Linux 4.3.

Prominent features in Linux 4.3.6 include lots of sound enhancements, updates to filesystems like EXT2, EXT4, F2FS, FAT, FS-Cache JBD2, NFS, OCFS2, procfs, and sysv, as well as improvements to the ARM64, PA-RISC, Xtensa, x86, and SH architectures.

There's no kernel update without some new or improved drivers, so Linux kernel 4.3.6 brings updates for things like ATA, Crypto, HID, I2C, v4l2, IOMMU, MD, TTY, USB, MTD, Wireless, SPI, PCI, and remoteproc. Some mm and core kernel improvements are also present.

Linux kernel 4.3.6 is now available for download from the kernel.org website or via Softpedia, but again, you are being urged to move to the Linux 4.4 LTS branch as soon as possible.