I seem to be missing messages from this stream so
excuse me if this has already been suggested:

I guess it depends on what problem you are trying to
solve.  We have lots (> 100) of systems that boot off
of LAN's.  We end up with kernels stuffed full of
drivers because otherwise, we'ld have to keep a database
lying around somewhere for each system and spend time
making lots of kernels each time we change something.
Granted we could write enough software to make this
painless, but it's one more thing to screw up.

I was actually fond of an idea I've heard from Rob or
Ken, can't remember which.  To address the problem, he
suggested the dhcp daemon link the kernel on the fly.
It could use a hardware vector passed in the dhcp request
(generated from plan9.ini perhaps) and return the file
name of the result so that the system could tftp it over.

Unfortunately, I find this all a lot less of a problem than
figuring out what IRQ's and IO ports to assign devices or that
of getting a new VGA board working.