Mon Nov 20 14:31:25 CST 2006
Thanks to everyone who provided valuable feedback on the question below. It looks as if Slackware -current (future 12.0?) is going to charge into 2.6-only territory, but it will be a conservative "charge". :-) The overwhelming consensus is that the 2.6 series is now more than stable enough for production use. Some folks expressed concern over the loss of Linux 2.4.x compatibility, but they were a definite minority. Some suggested maintaining two -current branches -- one following 2.4 and the other 2.6. The solution that'll be taken concerning 2.4.x will be to make Slackware 11.0 better maintained than simply security updates. It should see some other non-security updates as well (perhaps the introduction of an /updates directory?), and will be a long lived OS for those who swear by the stability of the 2.4.x kernel series. Meanwhile, 2.4.x compatibility features (such as the, er, mess? going on in the startup scripts) will be steadily eliminated in -current to focus on the best possible 2.6.x support. With a lot of work, we should be able to make the next Slackware release an excellent choice for both servers and desktops. Again -- thanks for all the input! :-)