Whats the difference between vanilla linux and "mm&quot

sud_crow · 2005-03-10 02:47:07

That,
whats the difference with that kernel? i see there is a package for it, but is it worth it? has something usefull? its bleeding edge? more optimized? what?

http://www.archlinux.org/packages.php?id=3983

arooaroo · 2005-03-10 08:19:11

Vanilla is the official kernel release.

Then, you often get people who patch the vanilla kernel with changes that often provide speed optimisations or better security.

the mm suffix denotes Andrew Morton's patches. He is actually the offical kernel maintainer, so his patches are often trusted, albeit still somewhat experimental.

Algol · 2005-03-10 10:03:54

-mm is actually the experimental version of the kernel right now (making up fot the lack of 2.7, but not just quite), when something experimental and/or possibly unstable (eg. reiser4) should be given some testing before getting into the official kernel it goes into -mm first.

Unless you're planning to do some kernel-devel or test something that is only in -mm, go vanilla or -as, since it adds security/stability patches. (evem though 2.6.x.y kernels do a pretty good job)

iphitus · 2005-03-10 10:21:35

-mm isnt making up for the lacking of 2.7

if you remember, there was 2.4-mm, and 2.5 and 2.4 stable at the same time.

2.7 occurs when there is something big, that will often require deep changes. -mm doesnt contain this sort of thing generally.

iphitus

Algol · 2005-03-10 13:43:52

Well, that was before, although as you say, there might be a 2.7 if something *really* big is to be included (thereby the "not just quite", in my note).

Here is a snippet from "Another look at the new development model" from lwn.net:

http://lwn.net/Articles/95312/

*New patches which appear to be nearing prime-time readiness are added to Andrew Morton's -mm tree. This addition can be done by Andrew himself, or by way of a growing number of BitKeeper repositories which are automatically merged into -mm.
*Each patch lives in -mm and is tested, commented on, refined, etc. Eventually, if the patch proves to be both useful and stable, it is forwarded on to Linus for merging into the mainline. If, instead, it causes problems or does not bring significant benefit, the patch will eventually be dropped from -mm.
The -mm tree has proved to be a truly novel addition to the development process. Each patch in this tree continues to be tracked as an independent contribution; it can be changed or removed at any time. The ability to drop patches is the real change; patches merged into the mainline lose their identity and become difficult to revert. The -mm tree provides a sort of proving ground which the kernel process has never quite had before. Alan Cox's -ac trees were similar, but they (1) were less experimental than -mm (distributors often merged -ac almost directly into their stock kernels), and (2) -mm does a much better job of tracking each patch independently.

In essence, -mm has become the new kernel development tree. The old process created a hard fork and was not designed to merge changes back into the "old" stable tree. -mm is much more dynamic; it exists as a set of patches to the mainline, and any individual patch can move over to the mainline at any time. New features get the testing they need, then graduate to the mainline when they are ready. New developments move into the stable kernel quickly, the development kernel benefits from all fixes made to the stable branch, and the whole process moves in a much faster and smoother way.

sud_crow · 2005-03-10 19:01:17

Good, thanks all for the comments.

I was wondering about this kernel because of my problems with Cool and Quiet, i know that it might not solve them, but, just in case i wanted to give it a try but with some backgound info about it.

Thanks!

Arch Linux

#1 2005-03-10 02:47:07

Whats the difference between vanilla linux and "mm&quot

#2 2005-03-10 08:19:11

Re: Whats the difference between vanilla linux and "mm&quot

#3 2005-03-10 10:03:54

Re: Whats the difference between vanilla linux and "mm&quot

#4 2005-03-10 10:21:35

Re: Whats the difference between vanilla linux and "mm&quot

#5 2005-03-10 13:43:52

Re: Whats the difference between vanilla linux and "mm&quot

#6 2005-03-10 19:01:17

Re: Whats the difference between vanilla linux and "mm&quot

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