On 06/13/2019 02:56 AM, BorgLabs - Kate Draven wrote:
> HI
> 
> I would like everyone's opinion on this.
> 
> I'm trying figure out the benefits of either staying with the LTS kernel or 
> with the lastest kernel. The machines are every day use and stability is 
> important. 
> 
> Am I tossing away any benefits, of the latest kernel, if I use the 4.8x/9x 
> kernel. Or do the benefits of the 5.1x kernel out weigh any instability? 
> 
> I'd like all schools of thought.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Kate

Kate,

  Unless you have super-new bleeding-edge hardware that needs a new feature
added in 5.1 that is not available in previous versions -- then 5.1 provides
absolutely no benefit. Any tweak that 5.1 provided to help with Spectre
performance mitigation, etc.. will likely be backported and in a LTS kernel.

  I have Arch (that always runs the current upstream version of the kernel,
5.1.9 currently), and Arch also provides an LTS kernel using 4.19. I have a
SuSE leap 42.3 install running the 4.4 kernel, SuSE leap 15.0/15.1 installs
with the 4.12 version, I have a Pi running Debian/jessie with the 4.9 ARM
kernel, and from a general computing/feature/functionality standpoint, it
makes no difference.

  Now if you have bleeding-edge hardware that is only supported in the latest
greatest kernel -- then yes, there is a difference, otherwise you won't know
the difference.

  HTH

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.