Simon Shapiro: How many people never compile their kernel and why? I generally try and use a debian kernel image until I have a specific reason not to. Then, I generally try to use the debian source until I have a specific reason not to. Then, I generally try to use one of Linus's snap shots until I have a specific reason not to. Then, I try to work with generally distributed patches until I have a specific reason not to. Then, I try and make clean changes to the source (and report back to the code maintainers what I've done). I've never had to progress beyond that stage (which would involve a major re-write of some kernel code).
When convenient (e.g. when it looks like someone else has fixed a problem which I consider significant), I try to migrate back to a more generic kernel. Unfortunately, there still exist kernel problems which I have to work around by carefully avoiding certain classes of operations. People with a different hardware configuration and different operational constraints might be able to live with a completely stock kernel. By the way, note that there can be problems with both xconfig and config with 1.3.51. (make xconfig didn't appear to offer some network options I needed, make config somehow left me with an empty .config file -- I had to recover a previous version of .config, edit it manually and make oldconfig). Not everyone wants to spend the time necessary to deal with these kinds of issues. -- Raul
