Linux Kernel 4.14 Reaches End of Life After More Than Six Years of Maintenance

Users are urged to upgrade their systems to one of the latest long-term supported Linux kernel series.
Marius Nestorby Marius Nestor0
Linux Kernel 4.14 End

Originally released on November 12th, 2017, the long-term supported (LTS) Linux 4.14 kernel series has now reached its end of supported life after being maintained for more than six years.

Renowned kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman announced today on the Linux kernel mailing list the release of Linux 4.14.336 as what appears to be the last maintenance update to the long-term supported Linux 4.14 kernel series, which is now marked as EOL (End of Life) on the kernel.org website.

“This is the LAST 4.14.y kernel to be released. It is now officially end-of-life. Do NOT use this kernel version anymore, please move to a newer one, as shown on the kernel.org releases page,” said Greg Kroah-Hartman. “If you are stuck at this version due to a vendor requiring it, go get support from that vendor for this obsolete kernel tree, as that is what you are paying them for.”

I doubt there is still a GNU/Linux distribution running the Linux kernel 4.14 out there, but if you’re still using this kernel version, you should now consider upgrading to one of the many long-term supported kernels, including Linux 5.4, which will be supported until December 2025, or Linux 5.10, Linux 5.15, Linux 6.1, and Linux 6.6, all of them being supported until December 2026.

Of course, it’s wise to upgrade directly to the latest version, namely Linux kernel 6.6 LTS, if it’s available for your system (if not, you’ll have to compile it from sources). But any of the aforementioned long-term supported Linux kernel series will do the job, especially if your hardware is old. For newer hardware, a newer kernel is highly recommended.

The next in line to reach the end of its supported life is Linux kernel 4.19 LTS, which on released on October 22nd, 2018. Linux 4.19 LTS is slated to reach EOL status later this year in December 2024.

Last updated 4 months ago

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