Hi all,
I have recently re-installed my Linux Mint 18.3 & after finishing the install I checked in the update manager & saw it was using kernel 4.10.0.38
What confuses me is this, when clicking on "Linux Kernels" in the update manager I see options for ~
4.4 kernels (around 50 different kernels)
4.8 (15)
4.10 (17)
4.11 (2)
4.13 (8)
That's nearly 100 different kernels with no guide as to what the difference is & why I would want one over another.
I decided to update to the latest listed kernel (4.13.0.32) believing that it should give me the best security when considering what I have read regarding Spectre & Meltdown. The system seems to work fine on this kernel (so far) but I have left the older one in place in case I need to boot from that, but should I use the latest one, should I stick with what it had & what do they all offer & how does someone know the difference when there's no information to tell me.

Basically Mint is a LTS system, so each (sub-)release comes with a kernel level-set. Which are maintained for the life of that release. No real need to stray from the release set that your release came with. Unless you upgrade rather than install from scratch - which used to be the recommended course of action until recently. Then it gets confusing.
So no real need to go "latest-and-greatest" as supported kernels are (will be) patched against Meltdown and co.

Of course you can go latest, and for a new-ish PC/laptop, there are strong arguments to do so. I maintain Mint mainly for others, so I tend to not be too aggressive with the kernels.

Thank you for your reply. I use Timeshift to back up locally and to an external drive although I don't mind fresh install if necessary, it's easier and quicker than it ever used to be under Windows.
Your reply has been very helpful and as such I will revert to 4.19.0.38 as it sounds that it is optimised for my system.

50 different kernels? Believe it or not, someone, somewhere out there will still be using every one of 'em, in production. It happens.

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the basic rule is: if you are unsure just use the default one. If you have any reason to use another one (and you are really sure about that) install/use that one.

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Thanks all