Re: [tlug] There are way too many Linux distros

[Edward Middleton <emiddleton@example.com>]

Curt Sampson wrote:
> On 2008-06-23 07:49 +0200 (Mon), Attila Kinali wrote:
>
>   
> > While with linux you can choose from a plethora
> > of distributions working on top of the same kernel.
> >     
>
> I'm curious about two things.
>
> 1. Is this really true? I can just take any Debian kernel and drop
> it into a Red Hat system (assuming the same major and minor version
> numbers) and everything will still just work?
>   

Generally having the same kernel version is not so important as long as 
it isn't a major version change i.e. 2.4 -> 2.6 etc. you also have to 
have reasonably similar modules, compile in drivers. i.e. support the 
root filesystem.

> 2. What are the advantages of this? (I.e., of all these different
> distributions having the same kernel.)
>   

Sometimes your desired distribution doesn't have the latest hardware 
driver that is supported in another distribution or version.  Changing 
to the other distribution version might involve a considerable porting 
effort but recompiling the kernel with just the added driver patched or 
upgrading the kernel version might be easier.  I came across this 
problem while using an older version of CentOS running on newer hardware.

Edward