How to Help with Linux Kernel Development

"Please do contribute to Linux, and a great way of doing that is to test latest mainline or linux-next or -mm and to report on any problems which you encounter. 

Nothing special is needed - just install it on as many machines as you dare and use them in your normal day-to-day activities.

If you do hit a bug (and you will) then please be persistent in getting us to fix it. Don't let us release a kernel with your bug in it! Shout at us if that's what it takes. Just don't let us break your machines. 

Our testers are our greatest resource - the whole kernel project would grind to a complete halt without them. I profusely thank them at every opportunity I get :)"

(Andrew Morton, from the LinuxWorld interview. )

I recommend using the release candidates(-rcX), you can get them at www.kernel.org and report bugs at bugzilla.kernel.org. The nice thing is that this way you can make sure the next kernel will work on your system before it's even out. And you're usually not the only person who would suffer from these bugs of course.