Kernel "Types"

• The Linux kernel comes in two variants - the "vanilla" kernel, and the distribution's kernel.
• The "vanilla" kernel is the kernel officially released by Linus, or by a member of the community appointed by Linus (e.g. kernels version 2.4.X are officially maintained and released by Marcelo Tosatti).
• The distribution's kernel is normally a "vanilla" kernel, with many patches on top of it that either did not get accepted to the "vanilla" kernel, or that the distribution's maker back-ported from newer kernels.
• Thus, normally the latest "vanilla" kernel has more features...
• ... while the distribution's kernel has gone through more orderly testing and could be more stable.

Originally written by guy keren