Linux 7.3 designated 2026 LTS kernel, 7.4 misses despite new AMD and Intel features
Stable maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman is selecting Linux 7.3 over 7.4 for the 2026 long-term support kernel due to release calendar timing, leaving newer hardware enablement on a shorter support cycle.
Summary
Greg Kroah-Hartman, the Linux stable and LTS kernel maintainer, has announced he is leaning toward Linux 7.3 rather than 7.4 as the 2026 Long Term Support kernel. The decision stems from scheduling: Linux 7.4-rc1 opened on November 1, 2026, and even under ideal conditions the final 7.4.0 release would land on December 27, making it a marginal year-end release. Kroah-Hartman had originally expected a three-week -rc1 cycle pushing 7.4 into early January 2027, but the actual timeline compresses the window.
This choice carries hardware implications. Linux 7.4 contains significant new platform support including AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 enabled by default, expanded AMD Ryzen Zen 6 bring-up, and additional Intel Nova Lake laptop enablement, plus performance optimizations. Users and distributions depending on the annual LTS baseline will not receive these features on a multi-year supported kernel unless they are backported or they migrate to a non-LTS series.
LTS selection criteria and 7.4 feature cutoff
- LTS timing convention: The annual LTS kernel is typically the last major version released within the calendar year; 7.4's projected December 27 release falls too late for comfortable qualification.
- 7.4-rc1 schedule: The merge window opened October 19 and closed November 1, 2026, with rc1 tagged on November 1, compressing the timeline Kroah-Hartman had anticipated.
- AMDGPU advancements in 7.4: HDMI 2.1 support moves to default-on status, a change that will not be present in the LTS baseline unless selectively backported.
- CPU platform enablement gap: Zen 6 and Nova Lake laptop support additions in 7.4 will miss the LTS kernel, potentially affecting hardware availability timelines for enterprise distributions tracking LTS.
Why it matters
Enterprise Linux distributions and embedded vendors that standardize on the annual LTS kernel will base their next several years of support on 7.3, forcing a choice between stability and newer hardware compatibility. This creates additional backporting burden for AMD and Intel driver maintainers and may delay adoption of newer platforms in conservative deployment environments such as SteamOS or long-term support Ubuntu and Debian releases.
What to do
- Users relying on the annual LTS kernel should note that Linux 7.3 is expected to be the 2026 LTS version instead of 7.4.
- Users requiring Linux 7.4 features like AMDGPU HDMI 2.1, Zen 6, or Nova Lake enablement must migrate to a non-LTS series or wait for backports.
Original reference: www.phoronix.com →