<You wanna know how many times I screwed up a kernel upgrade? (trust me, you don't) Now, however, I can do it with (literally) one hand tied behind my back (can't quite do it blindfolded yet :) and rarely have problems. You learn from your mistakes, and being able to compile a kernel by hand is a very useful skill if you ever want to do a custom system like I frequently do.>
Almost every Linux guru I know has his/her own custom system. All my clients who have anything to do with Linux always customize their own Linux kernel. Is this an unspoken sina quo non or what? :-) Compiling and installing a new kernel is not the main problem. The difficult part is, essentially every major distro has its customized kernel. And if their patches are not incorporated by Marcelo, the 18-year Brazilian wonder kid who is now in charge of the stable kernel, then there may be some unknown consequences.
