[Eug-lug] Free O'Reilly book

[Ben Barrett]

(see below)
Alan wrote the following on 1/28/2005 4:39 PM:

> T. Joseph CARTER wrote:
>
>  Sarge
>
>> hasn't been released yet, and Debian stable uses a 2.2 kernel still.
>>
>
> As much as I hate "distribution wars":
>
> ajb at sprocket:~$ cat /etc/debian_version
> 3.0
> ajb at sprocket:~$ apt-cache search kernel-image
> kernel-image-2.2.20 - Linux kernel binary image for version 2.2.20.
> kernel-image-2.2.20-compact - Linux kernel binary image.
> kernel-image-2.2.20-idepci - Linux kernel binary image.
> ...
> kernel-image-2.4.18-1-386 - Linux kernel image for version 2.4.18 on386.
> kernel-image-2.4.18-1-586tsc - Linux kernel image for version 2.4.18
> kernel-image-2.4.18-1-686 - Linux kernel image 2.4.18 on
> kernel-image-2.4.18-1-686-smp - Linux kernel image 2.4.18 on
> ajb at sprocket:~$
>
> While it's true that 2.2 is the default kernel(is this still the case? 
> I know you can use 'bf24' to boot directly into a 2.4 kernel),changing 
> to a 2.4 kernel is as easy as an apt-get.
>
> This is _no_ different than updating your kernel on a RedHat box, or 
> even downloading the source and compiling your own.
>
>
> -ajb

It *seems* different, but I'm probably missing your meaning.  
Differences to me, being among:  subscription/binary  vs. 
roll-your-own/compilation, bootloader and module configuration, etc.

Most other distro's do not use kernel 2.2 by default... this is a big 
issue for many folks.  Default security, is ideal of course...

but OTOH, to address one of Joseph's concern about lengthy compiles on 
old platforms:  I *imagine* and *hope* that these folks are 
cross-compiling!  Maybe they aren't, and you seem to know more about 
it.  But the need to cover so many platforms, from devs around the 
world, would obviously increase the time to release... do you know if 
people with Atari's are actually compiling X on their Atari's, for instance?

regards,

    Ben