linux 2.4.13 Kernel and Ext3 vs Ext2

[Miguel Maria Godinho de Matos]

With the kernel bug from the past few weeks, i saw my self in a situation 
where i had to upgrade/change my kernel, but didn't knew which version to 
choose.

I am currently running my old 2.4.7 stable version with no known bugs ( i 
think ) but this is not what i want, So i went digging and found out that the 
kernel 2.4.13 hasn't also got no known major bugs, and so  i am wondering if 
i should compile that kernel version or wait to the 2.4.16 final one!!!

My question is, which kernel version support the ext3 partition format?

My current kernel supports it, it has to as i running it, but the 2.4.14 
didn't, so i don't know which versions do support this partition type!

Another matter now:

When i first installed linux red hat 7.2 one  month ago, i saw that there had 
appeard a new partition format, but as i am new to linux, and as the 
installation info about ext3 advised me that ext3 had lots of advantages over 
ext2, i choosen ext3!

I want to know whether i did the right or the wrong thing, and which are the 
main differences between these two types!!!

ha, and before saying goodbye, where can read the complete information about 
each and every kernel release?

tks, Astinus