"Chambers" <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> 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>

Seriously, have you guys ever heard of loadable kernel modules?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loadable_kernel_module

Linux has not been a purely monolithic kernel for, what, more than a decade?
And if you don't need something, just unload it, not recompile the friggin'
kernel.

I've never had the need to recompile any kernel, despite hardware upgrades.

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