Stock kernel - it works everywhere because?

[Matthew Smith <matt@smiffytech.com>]

Hi Folks

Nearing the end of my journey now (Gentoo to Debian migration.)  Setting 
up VMware Workstation from the official distribution (this is the 
commercial one that I use) requires me to re-build the kernel so that it 
and the VMware modules are compiled with the same version of gcc.

I derived the .config for the kernel I am building from /proc/config.gz

This is a HUGE build, taking forever.  May sound like a daft question, 
but is the ease-of-use of the stock kernel due to the fact that drivers 
for EVERYTHING are built as modules?

Not used to distros that just work - especially with odd wireless 
drivers - so forgive me if I sound a little stunned!

Cheers

M

--
Matthew Smith
Smiffytech - Technology Consulting & Web Application Development
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