[$] Backports and long-term stable kernels
One of the longest running debates in the kernel community has to do with
the backporting of patches from newer kernels to older ones. Substantial
effort goes into these backports, with the resulting kernels appearing in
everything from enterprise distributions to mobile devices. A recent
resurgence of this debate on the Kernel
Summit discussion list led to no new conclusions, but it does show how
the debate has shifted over time.