Stable branches, including frameworks for Kubuntu LTS

[Martin Flöser]

Am Dienstag, 12. Mai 2026, 18:15:44 Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit schrieb Marco 
Martin:
> Hi all,
> I'm speaking with my Techpaladin hat here. We have a client (Kubuntu Focus,
> which they are KDE patrons as well) which is interested in long commercial
> support for Plasma 6.6, alongside accompanying Gear applications and
> frameworks.
> This is for Kubuntu 26.04 LTS, which means:
> * Plasma 6.6
> * Frameworks 6.24
> * Gear 25.12 (unfortunately not 26.4)

Let me congratulate and thank both Kubuntu Focus and Techpaladin for doing 
this important work and wanting to do it upstream!

I find this effort so awesome that I thought I have to answer on it :-)
> 
> We would continue to backport and test the relevant bugfixes for the time
> being,
> point releases would continue to be made out of such backports.
> 
> They will also sponsor to the eV the necessary CI nodes to continue CI for
> those branches, as long they are supported.
> 
> Now the delicate part is frameworks, which as of today it doesn't have a
> stable branch, but since Kubuntu can't upgrade frameworks in its LTS, such
> a stable maintenance branch would need to be created, which would be a
> first.
> 
> We (as in Techpaladin) pledge to take up the maintenance of such branch as
> long as it's supported, managing backports, testing and releases, as well
> as keeping the new CI nodes green

I think there is no problem using the normal branch names without any Kubuntu 
or Enterprise branch naming. The only important thing is that the 
communication is clear:

 * no expectation that there will be another LTS branch in future
 * corporate backing, no community effort
 * no promises from community
 * no expectations that bugs get backported
 * community members should not be pushed into backporting

The last point might also require that we prepare some text templates for 
social media and bug reports when users demand that a bug fix gets backported.

Cheers
Martin