[Haifux] Kernel for Fedora: Repository or vanilla?

[Oron Peled]

On Monday, 20 בSeptember 2010 00:18:48 Eli Billauer wrote:
> What I tried to figure out was whether there's something stupid about 
> just downloading the lastest kernel regardless of rpm packages, compile 
> and install it. Like in the good old times when I knew what happened on 
> my computer.

It is a Fedora policy to actively roll all Fedora changes to upstream
projects (e.g: kernel). Combining this with the fast Fedora update
cycle (even within a single release), means the Fedora kernel is
not very different from upstream.

So to your direct question:
 * This means you normally can compile + use upstream kernel.
 * You will probably want to take a Fedora /boot/config-*
    as the starting point of your customized .config build configuration.
 * You will (temporarily) loose all Fedora specific bugfixes. But as I
    said, they should eventualy, be rolled back upstream.
 * It looks to me like a 'bumpier' road experience in terms of stability.
   (which is what you wanted in the first place)

> I like to know, that if something 
> worked a year ago, it will work when I try it today, and not try to keep 
> up with features I used being removed and bugs being added.

Hmmm... Just wanted to mention that bugs are even *removed*
in some rare events ;-)

> Would it be naive to assume that they would update packages even
> after EOL, if it comes to security threats?

Yes. In Fedora EOL is... well... End Of Life. Example:
 * Look at:
      ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/fedora/linux/updates/11
 * Fedora policy is EOL for release N is one month after release
    N+2
  * Fedora 13 was in 2010-05-25
    https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Fedora_%28operating_system%29#Version_history
  * Fedora 11 modification time of the directory is 2010-06-25

Older releases are moved to:
  http://archive.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/

There used to be a "Fedora-Legacy" project that tried to maintain security
fixes for older Fedora releases... no more:
    http://www.fedoralegacy.org/

My conclusion -- either join the ride (I'm doing it for years) or look for
one of the slower alternatives I mentioned in my earlier post.

Enjoy,

-- 
Oron Peled                                 Voice: +972-4-8228492
oron at actcom.co.il                  http://users.actcom.co.il/~oron
Some people claim that the UNIX learning curve is steep, but at least
you only have to climb it once