So you have not been rebooting when you update kernels up until now? That might leave you open to security vulnerabilities. You don't specify which update tool

So you have not been rebooting when you update kernels up until now? That might leave you open to security vulnerabilities. You don't specify which update tool you are using, but if it hasn't shown you that screen before that sounds like a bug. EDIT: replying to digi_owl, as HN won't allow me to reply at a deeper nesting level. > 1. you can actually do a kernel update without a reboot now, using certain tools. To my knowledge, none of them are supported by debian, which was what the OP was talking about. Maybe he's using them, but then, it seems weird to complain about debian requiring reboots if he's gone to such lengths to prevent that problem in the past. > 2. dbus was a reimplementation in C of dcop, the KDE IPC system. It was aimed at allowing desktop programs to talk to each other, not carry the whole OS on its back. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything in my post. > 3. drop the attitude. Or are you deliberately trying to derail the topic? I'm not sure what attitude you refer to, it was not my intention to come off as hostile. Apologies to the GGP if that's how it sounded. I was merely pointing out that reboots for upgrades are not a new thing in debian, as the GGP seemed to be implying.