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Linux Kernel 2.6.32 LTS Has Reached End of Life

Posted by timothy on from the why-we're-all-gathered-here-today dept.

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.

7 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Age? by TheReaperD · · Score: 3, Informative

    Looks like it was released on December 2nd 2009.

    --
    "Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
  2. Damn, been a while since I worked on the kernel by Snotnose · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Last time I wrote a driver (PCI) we were deciding if we wanted to stick with 2.2 or upgrade to the new fangled 2.4 kernel. Last time I dug into the kernel guts (our hardware was really slow for some reason) 2.4 was still considered new.

    I'm just a user now using Linux to write software for embedded systems.

  3. Re:Well, that's it. by Kjella · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's the last kernel that I as an individual was vaguely able to keep up with. Now it's such a bloated mess that unless you've been part of the development team for decades, you're really not going to be able to maintain an understanding. It seems nearly every project in computing goes this way. Oh well, sic transit and stuff.

    According to this chart 2.6.32 had ~9.8 MLoC so I'd say you weren't doing too shabby. In fact if you can keep up with over half the current kernel at ~16.8 MLoC, Linus might be hiring...

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  4. Finally! by aralin · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  5. CHange for the sake of change by Billly+Gates · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh here we go again! Linus wants more money and obsolete perfectly good computers so they can sell more apps on the Gnu appstore. THis is OUTRAGEOUS! We just upgraded from kernel 2.2 from 2001 last year and Linus ends support already?? Kernel 2.6.32 works just fine and is modern and well supported.

    I can't believe users put up with this vandalism and forced obsolence. All the icons are in the wrong spot and my users can't handle change so quickly

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
    1. Re:CHange for the sake of change by Trogre · · Score: 4, Funny

      Okay, everyone, say it with me now:

      WhooooOOOooooosh

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  6. Longer than BSD, Windows of the same time period by raymorris · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.