Patches tend to be under 500K a pop. The automatic patch script makes
using them a doddle. Anyone sucking each new 4Mb source tree off the net
is just wasting bandwidth, IMHO. The arguement about actual size is a
moot point. The arguement for reducing the clutter of obsolete drivers
has some merit. However, having everything in one place is very useful
and for the sake of a few extra minutes online grabbing the latest
source/patches it's well worth it.
We should note that Joe Average commercial user using Linux is going to
use a distribution anyway, and that once it works, its not something that
would be changed to often.
Btw, a small wrapper that I have in /usr/src that I run after grabbing the
latest patches into my local ftp archive saves on those keystrokes when
using patches.
#!/bin/sh
./linux/scripts/patch-kernel /usr/src/linux /ftp/pub/linux/v1.3
Mark