Past versions of the kernel in GRUB

[Leonid Grinberg <lgrinberg@gmail.com>]

This is not a big problem (and is probably not a problem at all), but...

a while back when I firsed installed Debian (December, 2004, I think)
I had Linux kernel 2.4 and whenever I turned on my computer, Grub came
up and had two options. They said something like

GNU/Linux Kernel 2.4.27-1-386
GNU/Linux Kernel 2.4.27-1-386 [recovery-mode]

All fine and correct, this is. Later, however, I installed a Debian
package (kernel-build-2.6, I think) and restarted the computer. When
it restarted, Grub displayed the following.

GNU/Linux Kernel 2.6.8-2-386
GNU/Linux Kernel 2.6.8-2-386 [recovery-mode]
GNU/Linux Kernel 2.4.27-1-386
GNU/Linux Kernel 2.4.27-1-386 [recovery-mode]

It automatically loaded into kernel 2.6 and to this day (this all took
place a few months ago) all works fine. Also, if I run boot-admin (as
root, of course) I can delete any one of the choices.

The bottom line is, is it normal to have two parallel kernels
installed (is that even what is happening?) I am just curious as my
computer works fine.

Thank you,
Leonid