>>>>> "Andreas" == Andreas Brusinsky <brusinsk@ibdr.inf.tu-dresden.de> writes:

    Andreas> So would it matter if I would boot it diskless compared
    Andreas> to local related to possible driver omissions.

Yes, it does matter, but not in the way you think. It is never a good
idea to have a file server - your proposed use of the machine - boot
over the net. You want the server's network interface(s) to handle NFS
requests. You don't want those packets competing with the server's
swap and paging traffic if they're going over the net too.

Note too that is doesn't matter how a kernel is booted. What matters
is what's in the kernel: the more gunk there is, the bigger and
flabbier the kernel will be. Stripping out unnecessary code - unwanted
device drivers, kernel features, support for other CPUs, etc - can be
a big win. Firstly, it saves RAM because the kernel is always resident.
The less RAM used by the kernel means there's more for applications.
Secondly, the access paths though critical sections of code - low
level interrupt service routines, page fault handlers, etc - become
shorter and quicker because the kernel doesn't have to spend time
figuring out which type of CPU or MMU its running on.