CentOS - Aug 2009 - OT: Newest kernels much smaller in size

I'm updating my Desktop and curious as to the reason for the huge
difference in size, between the oldest kernel, which will be removed,
and the newest one that will be installed. Question: Did they remove a
lot of things from the kernel or rewrite it much more efficiently?
TIA.

Installing:
 kernel                 i686     2.6.18-128.4.1.el5         updates        15 M

Removing:
 kernel                 i686     2.6.18-128.1.6.el5         installed      40 M

Lanny Marcus wrote:
> I'm updating my Desktop and curious as to the reason for the huge
> difference in size, between the oldest kernel, which will be removed,
> and the newest one that will be installed. Question: Did they remove a
> lot of things from the kernel or rewrite it much more efficiently?
> TIA.
> 
> Installing:
>  kernel                 i686     2.6.18-128.4.1.el5         updates       
15 M
> 
That's the download size - the size of the compressed RPM package.
> Removing:
>  kernel                 i686     2.6.18-128.1.6.el5         installed     
40 M
and that's the installed size once the package has been decompressed.

So no change in size, really :)