"-generic" was( Re: Optimized kernel builds: the straight dope)

[Lloyd D Budd]

On 8/20/06, Matt Zimmerman <mdz at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 18, 2006 at 04:06:55PM -0400, John Richard Moser wrote:
> > I personally like my i686 kernel, just because I don't like the name
> > 'i386'  :)
>
> The names will change.  I believe Ben's proposal was "generic" and "smp"; I
> prefer "" (plain 'linux') for the generic kernel myself.

With the beta of Edgy, I am testing the Edgy release and of course one
of the first things I noticed was the removal of my "optimized"
kernel. Reading through this discussion it seems like removal was a
thoughtful decision.

What I disagree with is the naming of the kernel "-generic". If the
kernel did not have this suffix I probably would have shrugged and
moved on. The "-generic" influenced me to look up what made it generic
and what non-generic kernels are available.

Is this naming being adopted by other Linux distributions? If not,
what is the advantage of being different? xi6 is the generic platform,
but labeling it as such may create a legacy. If a suffix is desired
isn't something like "-x86" better?

-- 
Peace be yours,
Lloyd D Budd
http://www.foolswisdom.com/~lloyd/