Much attention goes toward mainline kernel releases, but relatively few users are actually running those kernels. Instead, they run kernels provided by their distributors, and those kernels, in turn, are based off the stable kernel series. The practice of releasing stable kernels has been going for well over five years now, so perhaps it's time to look back at how it has been going.

I’ve lost count of how many different kernels I’ve built for different systems, but in the past I always grab the vanilla source from kernel.org and experiment to get the necessary hardware support. Today I decided to learn how to play nice with Ubuntu’s kernel build facilities.

Everytime there is an update for the kernel, the new kernel is installed while the old one is not automaticaly uninstalled, after several kernel updates, you will find a large list of old kernels in the start grub menu.

The FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems have kernels that provide comparable facilities. Interestingly, their code bases share almost no common parts, while their development processes vary dramatically.

If you've been running Linux long enough to have upgraded your system more than once, you probably have several Linux kernels lurking around your system. If you discover that a certain application no longer works for you, you can go back to a previous kernel to try to run your program. GRUB, the boot loader found in most Linux distributions, lets you choose among operating systems and kernels installed on your box. Many people, however, fear that messing with GRUB may ruin their system, because of its many esoteric options, and configuration file text that often contains no help comments. QGRUBEditor can help you view and edit the GRUB boot loader from a graphical user interface.

If you've been using Ubuntu for a while, you're computer is probably cluttered with old versions of the Linux kernel. Learn how to remove those old kernels.

The Kernel Log is taking the opportunity to continue its series of reports on the major changes in Linux 2.6.31 compared to the current 2.6.30 kernel with an overview of storage and file systems.

"Interesting commentary from Linux kernel founder Linus Torvalds a few weeks ago in an interview on Simple Talk. He covers areas including microkernels vs. monolithic kernels..."

* «With the Hurd, users can change anything in their system which doesn't affect other users.»