One of the major issues for Android over the years has been device fragmentation. The Android version and Linux kernel version a device are on can have a massive impact on the device’s security and usability, and Google is making a concerted effort to improve Android’s update lifecycle with Project Treble.
At Linaro Connect San Francisco 2017, Google Project Treble team member Iliyan Malchev gave a talk on what Project Treble is attempting to do for Android, and on what it has achieved so far. He revealed that as part of their efforts to improve the security lifecycle for Android devices, Google has managed to get the Linux Foundation to agree to extend the support life of the Linux Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel branch from the 2 years that it has historically lasted, to 6 years for future versions of the LTS kernel, starting with Linux kernel 4.4. Greg Kroah-Hartman (GKH) of the Linux Foundation, the head maintainer for the Linux stable kernel branch (including LTS), felt that the timing was right to implement the change with the direction the entire computing market is heading, and gave Iliyan Malchev permission to announce the extended support life.
Read more at XDA
