Ubuntu releases long-term support (LTS) distributions in April of even years with 5 years of support. At any given time, 2 or 3 Ubuntu LTS releases are supported.
ROS releases a new distribution in May every year:
- In even years, it is an LTS release, with support for 5 years on the latest Ubuntu LTS (starting with ROS Humble)
- In odd years, it has ~18 months of support on the same Ubuntu version as most recent ROS LTS