I'm running an arch linux server and recently switched to an lts kernel from the repositories. Since I'm not rebooting the server very often, I want a stable kernel that is supported for a very long time. However, I noticed this specific arch linux lts kernel keeps getting updates. Some weeks ago I had installed the kernel 4.4.11 and now already a 4.4.12 update comes in. Being surprised about the 'high' update rate on the lts kernel track, I checked kernel.org and it states the latest longterm kernel is already 4.4.13, so I guess I have to update soon again on my server. The linux.com blog states , that the 4.4 kernel will be maintained for at least 2 years. But since there are already 13 updates (as in 4.4.13) in the last 5 months I don't really see the benefit of the long term support kernel. With such a high update frequency I could also run my server on the latest stable kernel and I would be not much more busy with updates than on the lts track. So, please explain me, what is the LTS kernel exactly designed for?

I am Ubuntu user; while I know that Ubuntu 12.04 is LTS and will be supported until April 2017, I'd like to know what the projected support lifetime of Debian Wheezy will be.

Does a distro exist based on (pre-installed) LXDE/LXQT which has 5 years support minimum. I have seen Lubuntu which only has 3 years support. I am basically looking for a very stable desktop distro which is not a rolling release distro which has predictable scheduled releases every 5 years or more.

I have a laptop with hybrid graphics and I'm so frustrated that linux doesn't fully support it without any intervention from my side, just like any other Windows machine would normally do. So I landed on this page which instructed me to run some scripts to gather information about my system and then led to this page which held basically the same information and then led me to this page which instructed me to gather some more information. I package these information in an archive. But sadly, after a discussion with one of the admins of the original page, he clearly stated that there was no much recent effort done to support my brand of graphics card (i.e. Radeon) So I'm not sure who in the Linux world could make use of the information I gathered to provide better support for HybridGraphics on Linux. I doubt it would be the Linux kernel mailing list. So who would it be if any ?

Which *a)* FLOSS *b)* stable (= not rolling release) *c)* desktop GNU/Linux distributions have a *long* security update support? Of course it’s interesting which distro has the *longest* support, but 2nd, 3rd etc. places should be considered, too. **Debian stable** versions get security updates for [around 1 year after the new stable](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/96137/21962) version is released. *In theory* this could be a long time, but you can’t know for sure, can you? **Ubuntu LTS** versions get security updates for [5 years](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS) . Any distro offers more?

Can someone help explain the FreeBSD support policy? I'm looking at http://security.freebsd.org/#sup , which says: Branch Release Type Release Date Estimated EoL RELENG_6 n/a n/a n/a November 30, 2010 RELENG_6_4 6.4-RELEASE Extended November 28, 2008 November 30, 2010 RELENG_7 n/a n/a n/a last release + 2 years RELENG_7_1 7.1-RELEASE Extended January 4, 2009 January 31, 2011 RELENG_7_3 7.3-RELEASE Extended March 23, 2010 March 31, 2012 RELENG_8 n/a n/a n/a last release + 2 years RELENG_8_0 8.0-RELEASE Normal November 25, 2009 November 30, 2010 RELENG_8_1 8.1-RELEASE Extended July 23, 2010 July 31, 2012 We haven't decided between FreeBSD 7.x and FreeBSD 8.x yet. We want to go with a FreeBSD branch which is supported for a while. Which release will be supported for longer? RELENG_7, or RELENG_7_3 ? RELENG_7 says "last release", which is a big ambiguous.

If I install OpenBSD 4.9, when will I have to upgrade to 5.0? When will the 4.9 release no longer be supported by the OBSD teams?

Which do you recommend? Some POVs to consider: * stability * available packages * life * kernels * or any other reasons? [**note**] This question was originally a request for recommendation between Debian 5 "lenny" and Debian 6 "squeeze". I modified it to make it more generic.