Hi Daniel >Like all the others? I believe only Slackware ships a Linus kernel, out of >the >better known distros. Yes, the other distros do it as well, but from my experience at least, Mandrake's kernel is the most patched. At least RedHat's default kernels in RH8 have low latency. >...which is very easy to install. Don't forget that most computer users have >never compiled anything in their life. The expectation of end-user kernel >rebuilds should really be a thing of the past. If you want to use the latest version of ALSA, you still need to have kernel sources and the like handy. That in a sense is building the kernel, as you are adding to the kernel's contents. I guess I was making a personal feeling known. I would rather have a vanilla kernel source for a default distro kernel, and patch it myself, rather than having a kernel pre-patched with stuff I won't want. >In the serious audio space, I believe the main competitor to Linux is >Apple OS >X. Only distros with plenty of pre-configuration stand a chance against OS X, >since most people who work in the sound industry are not C programmers. Out >of all the user-orientated distros, Mandrake is the only one I know that >respects and actually believes in free software. I agree. Regards Luke.