Re: [tlug] Just curious... how much impact does a kernel update make?

[Dave M G <dave@example.com>]

Edward,

Thanks for responding.

> Read a changelog, or follow LKML, though I suspect a lot of it isn't
> going to be of interest to you.  The development goes on in the open so
> it is just a matter of looking.

I know I can see what changes are made. A list is available in the 
Upgrade Manager interface.

It's just that I really have no idea of the scale of the impact.

For example, I just upgraded yesterday to 2.6.27-8.17.

In it are things like:

 * SAUCE: iwlagn: avoid sleep in softirq context
 * SAUCE: ALSA: hda: make a STAC_DELL_EQ option (version 2)
 * iwlagn: downgrade BUG_ON in interrupt
 * Driver core: Fix cleanup in device_create_vargs().
 * usb: musb_hdrc build fixes
 * netfilter: restore lost ifdef guarding defrag exception
 * anon_vma_prepare: properly lock even newly allocated entries
 * hvc_console: Fix free_irq in spinlocked section
 * proc: fix vma display mismatch between /proc/pid/{maps,smaps}
 * SCSI: scsi_dh: add Dell product information into rdac device handler

... just to pick a few of the hundreds of items listed. Just about none 
of these are decipherable for me.

My curiosity is not about the specifics of what changes are made, but 
the overall impact to stability or performance to the average user. With 
each kernel update, is it fair to say the system is significantly 
improved, or merely that minor bugs and problems are resolved?


--
Dave M G
http://tlug.jp/mediawiki/index.php?title=User:Dave_M_G