Hi,
The short version: - no more custom kernel - CD-version available too
Longer version:
The separate announcement for ia64 is due the fact that initial 4.0 version was distributed with customised kernel. That was done because i had to fix the serial console installation on rx1600 box which was not working on upstream vendor kernel.
Later upstream vendor has made patch for it too (much more elegant than mine), so the custom kernel is not needed on any system i know of.
Frakly i do test only on rx1600/2600 as that is the hardware i do have.
Another change is that i made CD-images too this time, so if there really is someone needing those, now those are available too. It never was about 'those are hard to make'. I didn't think those would be needed and leaving the CD-images out, saves few gigs space.
I am pleased to see that someone at least downloads the ia64 version too. It's not mainstream as i386, but i386 is boring :)
The sources are available from mirrors and i hope there will be one unified SRPMS DVD-image soon too.
Regards,
your ia64, s390 and s390x maintainer