I also do NOT like the kernels compiled for a huge number of systems. I do not think it helps either "hotrodders" or "little old ladies from pasadena". Hotrodders can and should build their own, and lolfp's cannot tell which kernel they need (they do not know, or care if they have a 586 or a Pentium Classic, and probably think they have a Pentium, even if it is from AMD)!
I am not even sure that initrd is all that great. I have looked in the man pages, in /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-2.4.2, /usr/share/doc/kernel-image-2.4.2-pentiumiii-smp, on google, and in other places and have yet to see the answer to my questions. These are: 1) how do I boot from a non-IDE root disk? 2) How do I control what goes into initrd in a more reasonable way than nothing/most/all. (and what does most do, anyway?). Jim Penny