I found an article on G+ about needing to upgrade the kernel to 3.10.17 for Ubuntu versions from 12.04 through 13.10.
http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2013/10/linux-kernel-3-10-17-upgrade-ubuntu-linux-mint/
is this suggested? Has anyone found any problems with it? and why an urgent upgrade?
my current one is 3.8.0-32-generic
You can install any kernel you want. There is no problem on using one or multiple Kernels at a time. Updating to a new Kernel keeps you up-to-date with Security Patches, Stability Improvements, Updated Drivers, and New Kernel Functions.
The link you mentioned is talking about to install a latest kernel. But you can see that Kernel 3.10.17 is not the latest one. You can find that Kernel 3.11.6 is the latest stable release now.
As you can find that in every 2 weeks a new kernel is released. So it doesn't mean that you've to update kernels after every two weeks. :) What I suggest you to stick with the kernels which is running without any problem.
I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with Kernel 3.11 without any problem. But sometime you should consider the Kernel Mapping to your Ubuntu Version. For example following link lists out the mapping of different kernel to different version of OS (go to precise section):
Ubuntu to Mainline kernel version mapping
The link you provided is a nice tutorial, you can also also get a complete information of Kernel installing/removing from following link.
Following link illustrates how Ubuntu 12.04 LTS works actually. It illustates in very nice way, you would also like:
Oh, well. The more I read about ubuntuhandbook.org here from users, the more I wish it would die instantly, because such low quality copypasta without explanation harms users.
See the section on Launchpad PPAs below for more details. (The package that the guide tells you to download is from Kernel Team PPA.)
You don't need to install additional kernel packages or external sources in Ubuntu. Everything is done for you automatically through the Software Updater. To be more specific, there exists a meta package that always points to the latest kernel that is available in this Ubuntu release.
Running saucy this is the current state:
$ aptitude show linux-image
Package: linux-image
State: not installed
Version: 3.11.0.12.13
Priority: optional
Section: kernel
Maintainer: Ubuntu Kernel Team <kernel-team@lists.ubuntu.com>
Architecture: amd64
Uncompressed Size: 33,8 k
Depends: linux-image-generic
Conflicts: linux-image
Provided by: linux-image-3.11.0-11-lowlatency, linux-image-3.11.0-12-generic, linux-image-3.11.0-8-generic
Description: Generic Linux kernel image.
This package will always depend on the latest generic Linux kernel image and headers.
If you run another Ubuntu release, that is not End of Life (EOL), don't fear, you are still covered and receive security patches and bugfixes for your kernel automatically.
Ubuntu HWE-Kernels
See this question: What is hardware enablement (HWE)?
Launchpad PPAs
Citation from Kernel Team PPA:
PPA description
This ppa is used for building pre-release and test kernels.
It IS NOT RECOMMENDED that you subscribe to this PPA.
For other PPAs see this question: Are PPA's safe to add to my system and what are some "red flags" to watch out for?
Kernel.org Kernels
See the page about Active kernel releases on kernel.org. If you are a kernel developer, then you already use these kernels and don't care much about kernel updates from your distribution. If you are not, using these will not automatically make you one.
