[Discuss] Firewire 800 controller and sbp2

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2006-12-01 08:33-0800 pw wrote:

> I'm not sure there is any difference between the kernel and sbp2
> on kubuntu vs. mandriva. Isn't everyone using the same kernel source?
> Of course the versions used could be different....

Exactly.  The kernel.org kernels are the source of it all. However, the pace
of change in the unstable kernels (e.g., 2.6.17, 2.6.18, 2.6.19) is quite
fast, e.g., a new release occurs every three months, IIRC. Furthermore, each
of those unstable kernels has a stable series (e.g., 2.6.17.y, 2.6.18.y)
where the number of different stable versions (the maximum y value) can get
to be fairly large.  The distributions choose one of those stable versions
for their release, then add their own patches.

Apparently the system is working much better than in the bad old 2.4 days,
that is, the innovation the distros want is getting into the kernel.org
kernels in a much more timely manner.  This reduces the size of the distro
patches. Furthermore, the common stablization patches in the 2.6.x.y series
are good enough that this factor tends to reduce the size of distro patches
as well. Nevertheless, a difference of say 6 months in release date between
one Linux distribution and another makes a huge difference in the kernel
used in the distribution.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net); the
Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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