Description

Some of the many things that Linux supports (such as network drivers, file systems, network protocols, etc.) can be in a state of development where the functionality, stability, or the level of testing is not yet high enough for general use. This is usually known as the "alpha-test" phase among developers. If a feature is currently in alpha-test, the developers usually discourage uninformed widespread use of this feature by the general public to avoid "Why doesn't this work?" mail messages. However, active testing and use of these systems is welcomed. Just be aware that it may not meet the normal level of reliability or may fail to work in some special cases. Detailed bug reports from people familiar. with the kernel internals are usually welcomed by the developers. (But before submitting bug reports, please read the documents README, MAINTAINERS, REPORTING-BUGS, Documentation/BUG-HUNTING, and Documentation/oops-tracing.txt in the kernel source).

This option also makes obsoleted drivers available. These are drivers that have been replaced by something else, and/or are scheduled to be removed in a future kernel release.

Unless you intend to help test and develop a feature or driver that falls into this category, or you have a situation that requires using these features, you should probably say no here, which will cause the configurator to present you with fewer choices. If you say yes here, you will be offered the choice of using features or drivers that are currently considered to be in the alpha-test phase.

On it's own, this option does not do anything except allow you to select other options.