Drivers Licenses only cover how to USE the car. Not how to fix it.
Uuh? System administrators has only to know how to _use_ a kernel? I think they should know a little bit more...
It's just as with the car. The mechanics used to really _repair_ an engine if something broke apart. Today, the engine will be exchanged, even for a defective cylinder head seal. Recompiling an own kernel means to build in a (possibly) entirely different engine. Installing a kernel RPM means to get a new factory engine (We at SuSE deliver _new_ engines, no rebuilt ones... It will not be as familiar wrt the bugs that it had, but it's more reliable).
Martin
Roman. -- - - | Roman Drahtmüller <draht@suse.de> // "Caution: Cape does | SuSE GmbH - Security Phone: // not enable user to fly." | Nürnberg, Germany +49-911-740530 // (Batman Costume warning label) | - -