So Artyom apparently made a post recently about how the 6.11 kernel will be used in Zorin OS 17.3. I recently read about how 6.11 has already reached end-of-life support. I am curious - why this decision? Why not the 6.12 LTS kernel? Can one of the Zorin brothers kindly explain their rationale? (It's a honest question.) Thanks.
Supporting link: Linux Kernel 6.11 End of Life: Upgrade to Linux Kernel 6.12 LTS
The Kernel comes from Ubuntu, not from Zorin. And EOL is technically right but Ubuntu supports the Kernel then with Updates.
Well, I know you are eager from an official reply from the Zorin's but I'd like to point out some of Artyom's comments on this topic. I believe the post in question that you are referring to is this:
I want to mention that the Linux kernel in Zorin OS 17 is expected to be updated to version 6.11 next month or in March, ahead of the launch of Zorin OS 17.3.
In a different thread, however, Artyom explained that Zorin OS uses the HWE kernel version. This comes and is updated by Canonical, and the latest version of which is at 6.11 (released October 2024):
The HWE kernel series will continue to receive updates and security patches for the life of the OS, until at least June 2027.
For reference:
Thank you to @zenzen and @Ponce-De-Leon for the responses here.
To add to what has been said, I'd say it's a good choice to not use the 6.12 (at least with a laptop with an AMD GPU); I'm using fedora with that kernel version and I had to downgrade to 12.4 even if the currently available is 12.7 because there's a bug that constantly increases the brightness until it's above what the screen supports and then the screen shuts down.
6.11 as EOL means it won't get changed much (other than security updates from Ubuntu specifically in this case), so this type of breakages are less likely to happen (which is ideal on a LTS distro)
That sounds not good. I mean the 6.12 will be an LTS Kernel. That should work. Hopefully they patch it.
If the 6.11 kernel is reaching end of life, as has been said in here, then it would be logical, for the Zorin's to use the 6.12 kernel. In my experience, the Zorin bro's are absolute wizards, of taking a kernel, and modifying it to function well with Zorin OS.
To be honest, unless you are buying a brand new 2025 computer, that is so new, the hardware inside of it, is not in the kernel functionality, you don't need the 6.12 kernel. But, if it so happens someone is buying a brand new computer, they will have to do what I did.
In 2021, I bought a brand new notebook computer. At that time, the kernel didn't fully support all hardware in my notebook, so I switched to POP OS, that was using the latest kernel. I staying on POP OS for a year, until I realized that the Zorin team updated the kernel for Zorin OS 16.
Then I came back to Zorin OS. Remember folks too, the biggest baddest lastest kernel, isn't always a good thing. The way that POP OS does their kernel implementations, caused a much older 2012 machine to black screen. This resulted in the system now required to manually boot into a lower kernel version, in order to boot into the OS.
This is why I much prefer the SOP way that the Zorin bro's do things. They fully test out the kernels, and modify things to works properly. This is the best approach IMO, and is one of the many reasons, why I returned to Zorin OS years ago.
But the Downside is, that the Zorin's would have to Care about the Kernel and the Updates and newer Versions. So, all the Updates come from Ubuntu and it goes automatically.
