What is a "kernel panic"? What does it mean when your computer has a **"kernel panic"**? Does it equate to the windows BsoD? Also, what **methods, tips, tricks** are available to the user when a _kernel panic_ strikes?

Kernel panic is the same as BSOD and is non-rescuable IIRC. However smaller failure is OOPS which denotes some error in kernel.

1. You can use kexec which switches to new kernel on panic (you can threat it as fast reboot) - possibly getting meaningful dump of system to debug the problem
2. You can use `panic` parameter which reboots kernel after n seconds. You can instruct GRUB to switch to fallback kernel in such case
3. Use Magic SysRQ keys to print stack traces etc.