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$ uname -sr
Linux 6.6.88
I have never bothered about alternative kernels. The only time I seriously researched other kernels was when I was considering trying out GUIX about five years ago, but I only felt reassured in using Linux as a result of that research.
Usually whatever comes stock with the distro—though one device is currently running a custom built kernel with some Linux TV patches because the patches are only available on x86 builds currently, and I've got the tuner that needs them attached to a pi zero 2
You custom built a kernel on a pi 0 v2? You must have next level patience.
Oh no, don't worry I cross compiled it on my desktop! I imagine the pi would crash before it completed the job
Oh damn that's also really cool! I've had a hard time with that and gave up.
Default Tumbleweed one: Linux 6.14.4-1-default
I have no idea.
I use Mint btw
Mint 22.1 has 6.8 by default but 6.11 is available. Xanmod 6.14 works, but it disables the screen off and suspend timers
zen bc i need zen for waydroid
Waydroid isn't dependent on a specific kernel
oh wait what i thought the binder module was not included in the default kernel, huh
i swear it used to be that you had to either use dkms or use zen
It definitely used to be the case, you are right, always had to dkms the binder module.
But it seems they come baked into the kernel nowadays, according to ArchWiki.
zen and lts as fallback
iirc zen has a scheduler that is supposed to be better for single user multitask desktop situations, while the regular kernel scheduler is better for server workloads.
Do you have any data to show it actually is better?
Desktop and server workloads aren't that different in practice.
Usually just default, but I believe my ThinkPad has zen and hardened as options.
zen has slightly worse battery life, but slightly better performance.
hardened is more secure, but some software (notably Flatpak) cannot run without first running sudo sysctl kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=1.
Also, my old ThinkPad uses GENERIC (OpenBSD).
Generally special kernels aren't going to perform any better than the main kernel. Actually they will likely perform worse.
The reason is that Linux is constantly being optimized to get better performance. If there were any performance benefits in a special kernel they would be ported to main. Special kernels are designed for very specific use cases.
I'm using the Arch standard kernel (6.14.5.arch1-1) and have the LTS (6.12.27-1) installed as a backup,,in case something goes horribly wrong.