What do you think?? Kernel 2.6 or 2.4 ??

ravenstyles · 10-01-2004, 07:09 AM

i've decided that i'm going to be making my own distribution of linux. my queston is wethere i should use the 2.4 kernel or go for the 2.6

i guess were on 2.4.27 and 2.6.8.1

i'm all about stibility so my gut says go with 2.4 but i'm on a somewhat new laptop and, well i'm just wondering what the big diff is between them and what the pros and cons are and what i'll be gaining and loosing by either choice.

MartinN · 10-01-2004, 07:41 AM

The 2.6 kernel has (among other things) a different scheduler which will make a desktop (as opposed to a server) system more responsive. If your laptop has a Pentium 4 processor, the 2.6 kernel can also utilize Hyperthreading.

If you don't mind reading a lot of text I would like to point you to this excellent article about the benefits of a 2.6 kernel:
http://www.kniggit.net/wwol26.html

Martin

irfanhab · 10-01-2004, 07:58 AM

2.6 kernels contain the latest and best support Linux can have for technologies such as SMP/Hyperthreading, better Swapping support, and better SATA support.
So clearly you would say that you should use the 2.6 series kernel

amosf · 10-01-2004, 08:37 AM

The 2.6 series is stable these days...

I'm currently on 2.6.9-rc3

ravenstyles · 10-01-2004, 08:01 PM

thanks guys, i have a Pentium 4 laptop so i guess i'll gowtth 2.6 but what verion of the kernel? on kernel.org it says 2.6.8.1 is the latest stable version, but should i ise that one or another?

amosf · 10-01-2004, 10:19 PM

2.6.7 and 2.6.8.1 are both good, tho be warned that you will need the lastest versions of K3B and mkisofs to work with 2.6.8.1 and up...

also 2.6.9 should be out shortly....

I'm currently using 2.6.9-rc3... but suggest 2.6.7 for the least amount of trouble for the moment...

h1tman · 10-02-2004, 09:22 PM

im still using 2.4 becuz my free modem driver dont work wit 2.6