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Linux Kernel 2.6.32 LTS Has Reached End of Life
prisoninmate writes: At the end of January we reported the fact that the oldest long-term supported kernel branch, Linux 2.6.32, is about to reached its end of life in February 2016, as announced by Willy Tarreau, who said that there might be another point release in a few weeks if important things need to be fixed. Well, it took a little bit longer than two weeks, and on March 12, he published details about the last maintenance release in the series, Linux kernel 2.6.32.71 LTS, along with the official end of life announcement, recommending users to move to the Linux 3.2 branch.
Looks like it was released on December 2nd 2009.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
As someone having to develop complex drivers for 3 years for this particular version of kernel because Cavium would not port their SDK to anything newer until couple years ago, I can honestly say, it was time... for a long time...
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
In 2009, three kernels were released, Linux 2.32, FreeBSD 7, and Windows 7. FreeBSD 7 went eol four years later, in 2013. Windows 7 service packs also ended in 2013, Windows 7 mainstream support ended in 2015, Linux 2.32 will support will (somewhat) end in 2016.
So other operating systems have support for 4-6 years, Linux for 7 years.
Don't be fooled by the 2.6.32 in RedHat EL6 kernels. That was only the base level. RedHat constantly backports important updates from newer kernels. The latest version is 2.6.32-573.18.1 and still counting (N.B. 573 is somewhat higher than the 71 on the LTS). Mind you I do find the EL7 kernels to be more responsive, so there is always a good argument to upgrade, but no rush 2020 is still a few years away.