[$] Six years with the 4.9 kernel

The release of the 4.9.337 stablekernel update on January 7 marked the end of an era: after just oversix years of maintenance, the 4.9.x series will receive no more updates. Thiskernel saw a lot of change after Linus Torvalds made the "final" releaseand left the building; it's time for a look at the "stable" portion of thiskernel's life to see what can be learned.