Linux 7.3 Will More Than Likely Be This Year's LTS Kernel

While the Linux 7.4 kernel will be released in the 2026 calendar year in the last week or two of December if the schedule holds, it turns out Linux 7.3 is likely to be this year's Long Term Support kernel version. Typically the Linux LTS kernel for a given year is the last major version shipped that calendar year. Even if Linux 7.4 ships with a one week delay it will be out on 27 December as opposed to a 20 December ideal target date. So while a Linux 7.4 release will most likely be here in 2026, Greg Kroah-Hartman as the stable/LTS maintainer is leaning towards Linux 7.3 for the LTS version. Greg KH wrote this week on the LKML he is leaning towards Linux 7.3 for the 2026 LTS kernel: "To be clear, I had assumed that 7.4 would be released the first week of January if we had had a 3 week -rc1 cycle, so am planning on 7.3 to be the next LTS kernel, which would have put the 7.4.0 release on the 27th if everything had gone "well". But now the scripts say: current status: 7.4-rc1 --- 7.4 window open : 2026-10-19 7.4 window close: 2026-11-01 7.4 rc1 : 2026-11-01 <-- you are here 7.4 final : 2026-12-20 --- That being said, if people are trying to "force" stuff into 7.4 that's the best possible reason to NOT have it be the next LTS release as we have had this happen in the past and suffered greatly for it. So let's just count on 7.3.y to be the next LTS unless something really crazy comes up with it that would prevent that from happening." Linux 7.3 has many nice features though a bit sad to see Linux 7.4 will likely not be the LTS kernel. Linux 7.4 features include AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 by default, more AMD Ryzen Zen 6 enablement, more Intel Nova Lake laptop enablement, some enticing performance optimizations, and a whole lot more I've been writing about the past two weeks. So for those relying on the annual LTS kernel versions, a bit unfortunate these features will likely miss the mark for the 2026 LTS version.