"Long-Term Support" doesn't mean what you think
My last post about good beginner-friendly KDE-focused operating systems sparked some discussions about the concept of “Long-Term Support” (LTS) releases.
But what does this term mean? It’s a bit generic-sounding, making it easy to interpret as meaning almost anything. So let’s go to the source: how the term is defined by the operating systems using it! Here are the non-commercial ones:
Security updates are provided by Debian security team for three years . This generally means that each stable release is supported for its whole life plus an extra year (or so) after a new version of stable is released. In addition, further security support is provided by the LTS and LTS/Extended projects.
LTS stands for long-term support — which means five years of free security and maintenance updates
The latest Long Term Support (LTS) version of the Kubuntu operating system for desktop PCs and laptops, Kubuntu 26.04 [is] supported with security and maintenance updates, until April 2029.
(I didn’t include openSUSE Leap because its marketing material doesn’t use this term, though what it offers is fairly similar in practice)