KDE e.V., Linux PC maker Kubuntu Focus and consulting firm Techpaladin Software have announced what they call the Bullet-Proof KDE Software Initiative, which promises at least three years of bug fixes and security updates for Plasma 6.6 LTS, the matching KDE Frameworks 6.24 libraries and the KDE Gear 25.12 apps, Phoronix reported.
The money comes from Kubuntu Focus, which has pledged $100,000 in direct payments to Techpaladin over the next three years. It’s also sponsoring three additional CI nodes owned by KDE e.V. to test the older branches on Kubuntu 26.04 LTS. The resulting software suite already ships with Kubuntu 26.04.
Why this LTS is different
Plasma developers canceled their LTS version of Plasma last year, partly because almost nobody but Kubuntu used it, Techpaladin CEO and longtime KDE contributor Nate Graham wrote in a blog post on the announcement. This time, he said, bug fixes and not just security fixes will be backported to every level of the stack, not only the desktop shell.
“This is what a real LTS initiative looks like, folks: people involved with an OS putting the resources into making a non-LTS upstream release into an LTS one, properly,” Graham wrote.
He addressed the obvious objection head-on. “My opinion remains the same: I don’t dislike LTS products — only fake ones that promise support but don’t actually deliver it,” he wrote. Graham described the effort as largely a commercial arrangement between the two companies, though KDE e.V. signed off on it and agreed to accept funding for the new CI resources.
Who else benefits
Kubuntu Focus sponsored more CI capacity than the initiative strictly needs, so all of KDE gets faster CI runs, even for non-LTS work, according to Graham. He added that many of the bugs Techpaladin has already fixed for LTS users also affected newer Plasma versions.
Other contributors are free to backport important, safe fixes to the Plasma 6.6, Frameworks 6.24 and Gear 25.12 stable branches, and a Kubuntu CI runner will check that nothing breaks. Graham also invited other discrete-release distributions to ship Plasma 6.6 and put their own resources into it.
WebProNews is an iEntry Publication