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



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


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