Post Syndicated from original https://lwn.net/Articles/919570/

The release of the 4.9.337 stable
kernel update on January 7 marked the end of an era: after just over
six years of maintenance, the 4.9.x series will receive no more updates. This
kernel saw a lot of change after Linus Torvalds made the “final” release
and left the building; it’s time for a look at the “stable” portion of this
kernel’s life to see what can be learned.