I could probably suss this one by doing some more reading, but there comes a time when you've read enough recently, and think it would just be easier to ask someone who knows...

Is the Redhat 8.0 kernel 2.4.x different from the 'stock' 2.4.x kernel that you could download the source for from www.kernel.org?

Furthermore, if I were to download and install the latest 2.4.20-x kernel from kernel.org, I'd no longer be running the standard RH 8.0 level kernel, but will this matter in any way given that binary compatibility is maintained (I presume)?

Also, RH's up2date s/w seems to patch the RH8 kernel to the latest version of 2.4.18 but no further. Will RH8 ever officially move to 2.4.20 or doesn't it work like this?

I'm sure these Qs are elementary to many, but undeniably the quickest way to learn is from others...?

(BTW, is there such a thing as a relatively newbie tolerant IRC room where I might be able to further my linux knowledge in real-time?)

Thanks,
P.

I have done this before on RH-based systems and experience no ill effects whatsoever, however...
I would expect to see problem with the up2date process if you allow it to attempt to update your kernel. Last time I downloaded kernels sources there were no rpm packages, only various compressed tar archives. But I suspect that installing an rpm that wasn't created by RH would be a problem when up2date tried to update it. Heck it doesn't even like to see a recompiled version of the kernel. You can imagine what it'll would do when it saw a version that made its way onto the system without using rpm.

Good luck,
Rick