On Fri, 29 May 1998, Steve Ki-Won Lee wrote:
> they have various "linux" downloads, such as linux-2.1.99.tar.gz and so
> forth, but not explicit "kernel" downloads. And yet when I look through
> Redhat's ftp site, it doesn't contain any "linux" downloads, but only
> have "kernel-*" rpm downloads at only 2.0.34 in their redhat-5.1
This is because Linux is really only the kernel, but you can have a Linux
distribution (such as Red Hat, or Caldera, Slackware, or whatever) which
is based around the Linux kernel, but which is a complete software
collection comprising many system componenents. Every package comprises
some component of the system or another. When the kernel developers
release a kernel, it's the Linux kernel and not related to any
distribution, so they just call it Linux. But when Red Hat makes a package
for the kernel, it's a package containing the system component which
happens to be the kernel. Calling the package "linux" would be misleading
as from a Red Hat perspective "linux" is the entire system, there is no
single "linux" component.
As for the kernel.org having 2.1.xxx kernels on it and Red Hat having only
up to 2.0.34, that is because the 2.1 kernels are developmental (beta
test, effectively, sometimes alpha test and sometimes even worse than
that) and not guaranteed to run correctly in all circumstances. Also they
change about every week. So Red Hat doesn't distribute them. They are
only useful to people that really need some new feature or another, or who
want to work on the development.
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