Compiling your kernel allows you to specifically enable / disable kernel features that available. Modules mostly alleviate the need for "rolling your own", but due to Linux's (still) largely monolithic design, some things are not available as modules. For example, you could disable IDE support if you have an all SCSI machine, disable MTRR if you don't have those, disable RTC support, disable TCP/IP support, etc. Linux 2.5 will have a lot more available as modules, and I expect a lot less users to be rolling their own because they could simply unload the module. That said, self-optimized kernels (considering you do it right), will provide you with a faster bootup time, (possibly) a slightly faster system, and more free memory. Nowadays, when 0.25 to 0.5 GiB of RAM is the norm, the need for compiling your own kernel is almost absent. On 23 Feb 2002, Grové Erasmus wrote:
What is the use of compiling the kernel myself ? Would that optimize the kernel for my machine ? I am not planning to do that until I know hwat I am doing !
-- Karol Pietrzak PGP KeyID: 3A1446A0