On Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:09:30 -0800, Chambers wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Invisible [mailto:voi### [at] devnull] I still don't entirely "get" why
>> you would ever recompile the OS kernel.
>> I mean, all it does is memory allocation, interrupt scheduling, etc.
>> What's to change?
> 
> <sarcasm>
> It's because the Linux crowd haven't figured out how to properly make
> device drivers yet.  Instead, the *kernel* is the device driver for
> every single thing in your computer.
> </sarcasm>
> 
> <serious>
> If you ever need to add hardware, you have to recompile your kernel to
> support it.
> If you remove hardware, you should recompile your kernel not to support
> it, otherwise it might be a kb or two larger than it needs to be.
> </serious>
> 
> ...Ben Chambers
> www.pacificwebguy.com

Utter and complete nonsense.  Or are you still using the 1.x kernels?

If your kernel is configured for modules (which I think all the major 
distributions are - embedded Linux tends to use compiled-in drivers 
because it's embedded and the hardware shouldn't change - in which case 
the KBs worth of savings are incredibly valuable), then this isn't a 
problem.

Jim

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