New kernels and old distributions
New kernels and old distributions
Posted Aug 3, 2006 19:29 UTC (Thu) by jbailey (guest, #16890)Parent article: New kernels and old distributions
While the kernel developers seem to consider it an interesting thing to have users upgrade kernels without touching anything else in the distro, I don't think many distros share their enthusiasm. ;) Certainly in cases where I've done Ubuntu and Debian troubleshooting, a first response of mine is often to ask them to undo local changes like custom kernels.
If an end-user is using a distro, then they should use what the distro provides. Anything else is just completely unsupportable.
Tks,
Jeff Bailey
Posted Aug 3, 2006 20:54 UTC (Thu)
by wilck (guest, #29844)
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Posted Aug 7, 2006 12:01 UTC (Mon)
by malor (guest, #2973)
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They have declared that the distros are the ones that have to make it work. Kernel.org kernels are officially no longer for end-user consumption. So, of course, people just run distro kernels.
I used to roll my own all the time, but I've been forced into that corner along with everyone else.
If they took responsbility for making stable kernels STABLE (which means they need to support them longer than two bloody months), they'd get many more testers.
Their decision to just handwave and expect the distros to actually make the code work means that only the distros do any testing.
Fundamentally, Linux is moving too fast. They are blaming the users for not testing enough, instead of themselves for shoveling in reams of untested code before the last batch has even started to settle.
It's only the fact that they're such brilliant coders that's saving them. And as good as they are, they're still having major problems. I guaran-damn-tee you that we're gonna be digging up severe security flaws for YEARS from this high-speed, low-contemplation environment.
There were 27 releases of 2.6.16. If they found that many problems that fast, just think of how many *subtle* security issues must be lurking.
Posted Aug 5, 2006 1:15 UTC (Sat)
by dlang (guest, #313)
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it's not always possible to have a working (or at least reasonably performing) system with the 'stock' distro kernel
yes this makes support harder. charge for the time when you run into such problems, don't just cry 'Unsupported' and scurry away leaving the user in a lurch.
If all end-users followed our advice, the number of people deploying (and therefore testing) kernel.org kernels would be even smaller than it currently is. That's one thing Andrew doesn't want to happen.New kernels and old distributions
The way to get more people to test is by making kernel.org kernels actually stable enough for use. New kernels and old distributions
frankly this would mean that a lot of distros would be completely unuseable for many people.New kernels and old distributions