Personal I think we should not persue a 2.4.21 kernel, but should be
working on a 2.6 kernel so that it will be ready when it reach release status.
Since we are progressing so slowly on 2.4.21 I think resources would be better spent on 2.6.
I don't think this is the greatest idea, but its not terribly bad. It would be best to get gentoo-sources at 2.4.21 (or 2.4.22, whatever), and keep it at 2.4. Automagically changing the generation of one's kernel on their system (with a -u world) is a rather bad idea for several reasons:
1. It is a major change. Alot of things either do not work (having alot of trouble with radeonfb, myself), or work very differently (lm_sensors). Users will be upset if this change is not blatantly obvious to them. They might as well switch to using the HURD and getting everything working the same :)
2. Some changes should not be automatic. There are still people using gcc 2.x. Should there be a 2.6 kernel, it should definately be labelled under a different name from gentoo-sources, not merely a version change. I could see portage bringing in "gentoo-sources-2.6.0" and people would jump and point "wow, lookie that biiiig change", and do a `make oldconfig` on a .config from a previous generation of kernel.
3. There already are 2.6 kernels in the tree (im sure you know this though :), they just havent been renamed from development-sources to whatever the new name would be. There isnt a whole lot of reason to maintain an alternate patchset as the kernel has alot of cool things in the kernel source itself now (preempt, etc). Should you wish for 'bleeding-edge' patches on the new series, try mm-sources, which is updated every three days or so with updates.
Now, dispite my claims above, I use 2.6 (and went through hell to get it to work on my laptop). I find the power management is alot better than with 2.4. I've been using 2.5 kernels for a few months on my desktop with varying success (do not even have a backup 2.4 to fall back to, my backup kernel is also dev-sources).
I had to go through a bit of trouble to get my synaptics touchpad working. It wasnt hard, it was just different than with 2.4 -- it threw it into a ps/2 compat mode, which i thought was how the device normally worked, wheras I had to change it to use a different mouse driver and protocol.
Getting pcmcia working also was not hard, just different. There is also little documentation for 2.5/2.6_test kernels online in this area: google returns hundreds of lkml and lkml-archived posts about xyz not working. Eventually I got my wireless card working, but not everyone has an hour or two to spend getting a brand new kernel to work properly, and i'm willing to bet that people will say "i want the new kernel, but only if i can have it work _exactly_ like the old one"
As I said, framebuffer, at least for me, refuses to work no matter how hard I try, wheras with 2.4 it worked with so little effort it was eerie. This, I think, is due to the fact that the radeonfb is being worked on (was forked) again, and something broke compatability with either my 7500 mobility, or the flat panel on the laptop.
I agree that having 2.6 in gentoo is a great idea, but look at how long it took to switch from having gcc 2.x to having gentoo install gcc 3.2 as the new default compiler. 3.0 and 3.1 were around for people to use, but switching users cold-turkey was avoided.
At this stage, anybody wanting to use 2.6 knows it is in portage.
It said Use Windows XP or better, so I installed Gentoo Linux 1.4
This is, indeed, the funniest thing I have ever heard in my life, and I am actually writing it down on a post-it so I will never forget it. :)
-Chris I
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