Re: Debian and Kernel Releases
In article <cistron.36F3E87D.4F568F73@thorn.net>,
Tommy Malloy <tjm1@thorn.net> wrote:
>I was looking at the documentation for the latest stable debian release,
>and noticed that it is shipped with kernel 2.0.36. As we know kernel
>2.2 is now released. So I am wondering what the relationship is
>between debian development and kernel development? Would it be better
>to develop debian around the latest kernel?
No, as you might have seen the latest released version of Debian (2.1
right now) is labelled as "stable". That means that it comes with a stable,
well tested kernel. 2.2.x isn't as stable as 2.0.x and not well-tested
either (yet!).
If you follow the kernel mailing list you'll see that even the current
2.2.3 kernel still has quirks. On some machines here I can't even run
it, the NFS server keeps dying. 2.0.36 is rock-stable.
>I presume that developing
>and or compiling programs on a machine with the latest stable kernel
>must have some advantage over simply installing a precompiled binary on
>an updated kernel.
No, it doen't matter at all under which kernel a binary gets compiled.
No influence whatsoever.
>This is not a criticism of Debian because obviously, debian releases can
>not follow exactly the latest kernel releases. There will always be
>some delay. I was just wondering about the relationship because 2.2 is
>a major kernel release. Or is this really not that significant?
Well some packages will need to be updated to be able to take advantage
of the newer features of 2.2 kernels, such as an improved tcpdump.
Some packages will need to be added, such as the policy routing stuff.
For normal usage, you will not notice any difference between 2.0.x
and 2.2.x besides that 2.2.x might be slightly faster if you have
a heavy machine like a multiprocessor machine with lots of disk and RAM.
Mike.
--
Indifference will certainly be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
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