Hey, all. On Fri, 4 Jun 1999 16:08:34 +0200, Hubert Mantel wrote:

Hi,

On Thu, Jun 03, Jeff Lasman wrote:

...

One think I can't do, though, is buy a package that calls itself Linux and yet changes the kernel code. My understanding is that we've all agreeed that only Linus does that, except for experimental code and to add support.

Where did you get this understanding from?

Can you point me to any distribution that uses the stock kernel?

Umm, actually Debian and Slackware, in my experience, both use the stock kernel.

And even if there is such a distribution, where do you know they use the same compiler version as Linus? SuSE does, but I know there are distributions that don't.

Umm, agian, Debian and Slackware are generally considered the best development platforms in use. I've never used Debian, but I was using slackware back in the days when kernel 1.3 was hot. I decided that Slackware was too high-maintenence for my taste, but stopped by all of the other major camps before deciding on SuSE.

Also, keep in mind that only a small part of the kernel is maintained by Linus. Most drivers are maintained by their authors.

A *very* valid point.

And if you don't trust us, feel free to install the original kernel from Linus. It's on the CDs. It's your choice.

I actually wouldn't recommend doing this. Why would you want to step backwards?

If you want to know the reason for changing the kernel: Why should we ship out-of-date drivers that are known to cause problems?

Including all sorts of nastiness like security holes and such. One of the reas- ons that I chose SuSE was for the little patches and tweaks in the kernel. To this day, I still don't know how to use GNU Patch (perhaps I would if I had to, and some situations are coming about that I'll need to learn anyway). It's the little funky things that SuSE engineers do that make it special. At first, you might be inclined to jump back and yell WTF, but you soon see that the changes, although not exactly advertised, are for your own good (and you will be assim- ilated :) ). Okay, so SuSE doesn't *always* have bleeding edge packages, but at least you can rest assured that the packages you have (including the kernel) are as well-tuned as they come. -=|JP|=- Jon Pennington | SuSE Linux 6.0 jon_pennington@excite.com | Kernel 2.2.5 Kansas City, Missouri, USA | K6-2 350 _______________________________________________________ Get your free, private email at <A HREF="http://mail.excite.com/"><A HREF="http://mail.excite.com/</A">http://mail.excite.com/</A</A>> -- To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archive at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>>