Those who custom configure their kernel: what did you gain?

Cyclohexane@lemmy.mlmod to Linux@lemmy.ml – 148 points –

Curious to know the coolest things you achieved by configuring your kernel. I know kernel config can be boring, but I'm hoping someone will have an impressive answer.

For me I have a very lightweight kernel that runs wayland on nvidia without any issues to date.

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As a Linux user of almost 30 years, compiling hundreds of kernels over the years has given me a great appreciation of pre-build kernels, and a profound gratitude for those who package them up into convenient distros that work out of the box and let me get on with the rest of my life.

Well said. I originally compiled my own kernels because I thought it was something you just did to use Linux. I also compiled hundreds of them, probably. Now it's stock kernel all the way. Not worth the effort and time and headache.

i think the learning experience is valid

Absolutely! If you're doing it to learn something, by all means compile your own kernel. Every Linux user should do that at least once in my opinion. But once the learning is done, the novelty wears off fast and it just becomes tedious.

I used Linux for about a decade from the mid nineties then took a break for a few years. When I came back, every distro kernel was precompiled, it was glorious. There was never a day I said to myself "damn, I miss compiling a kernel".