'Compare 2 kernel versions.
:param a, b: kernel version strings to compare
:return: True if \'a\' is less than \'b\' or False otherwise'

@classmethod
def _kver_cmp(cls, a, b):

    (a, b) = (cls._kver_encode(a), cls._kver_encode(b))
    return cmp(a, b)
