RIT Linux Users Group: Compiling the Linux Kernel

I recently joined the RIT Linux Users Group, for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, as part of my FOSS classes, I'm required to regularly attend tech meetups in Rochester, and the LUG was one of the few that I could actually get to.  Secondly, and obviously more importantly, I'm interested in getting more of a refresh on Linux.

When I got into college, the OS and I had a bit of a falling out, in that I stopped having the time and hardware to run it.  I want to be able to learn some of the more intermediate topics without forcing myself to exclusively use Linux or do a ton of experimentation on my own, and LUG is absolutely perfect for that.

Anyway, this week's presentation was on compiling the Linux Kernel!

I won't get too detailed about this, because I was still trying to wrap my head around the topic when our meeting ended.  That being said, the big takeways I had were:

• It's very valuable to do customization like this - contrary to what you might think, the Linux kernel can actually waste a lot of space and processor time in it's default state.  You're not just looking at trivial gains from an exercise like this.
• The big things you're looking to do is disable things that you don't need - like Mac OS drivers on your Lenovo laptop.
• You can do this graphically!  Which was a cool surprise, but it still doesn't necessarily make it easy.

Not having a Linux box I'm willing to test this on, I'm probably not going to go much farther down this particular rabbit hole, but I'm OK with that.  Like I stated above, I want to be able to tiptoe back into some of the more intermediate topics, and this was an awesome chance to do that - I'd have never researched any of this stuff if I wasn't at LUG.