The Debian Kernel team aims to provide kernels for our users that are functional, free, and secure, with a minimal divergence from upstream.
Patches the kernel team like:
- Security Fixes
- Driver Fixes
- Stability Fixes
... actually, more or less any type of fix
Patches the kernel team generally reject:
- New features
- Out-of Tree Drivers
- My favourite patch-set
The best way to get a patch into the Debian kernel is to get it accepted upstream first. Not only does this signify a certain level of quality, but it gives us a guarantee that we will be able to drop this patch from our Debian-specific tree at some point.