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> Boggles my mind that people do that. Why? It boggles my mind that you'd reboot needlessly. My uptime is usually in the hundreds of days. Sleep is good: I j

by tasuki 3y ago

> Boggles my mind that people do that. Why? It boggles my mind that you'd reboot needlessly. My uptime is usually in the hundreds of days. Sleep is good: I just close the lid. Next time I open the lid it immediately picks up where I left off. Why on earth would you want any other behaviour?

jameson71 3y ago
Security patching?
- cannonpalms 3y ago
  Can all be done online, no?
  - jameson71 3y ago
    Patching the kernel requires rebooting in Linux. Kernel and many other things require rebooting on Windows.
- pessimizer 3y ago
  What do you need to reboot to patch other than the kernel? I just restart things.
  - rthnbgrredf 3y ago
    Kernel is enough attack surface to require reboot, can't ignore it.
rolandog 3y ago
Security-wise: encryption at rest? In high security scenarios you may be required to shutdown so you're forcing "attackers" to go through several layers: motherboard password, disk password, encryption password, OS user password + 2FA, etc.
2b3a51 3y ago
Full drive encryption on Linux. I close down my laptop when I'm moving around or when I leave it somewhere while I'm in another part of the building.
JohnFen 3y ago
On my personal machines? I don't shut them down or reboot very often. At work, however, I have to use Windows. In that case, I shut it down at the end of every workday, in part because that prevents weird issues Windows tends to develop when running too long. Mostly, though, it's because of those damned forced updates. Since I can't trust Windows to not reboot itself at any random point in time, having the habit of shutting down at the end of the day at least ensures that I won't accidentally lose my state overnight or over the weekend.
- tom_ 3y ago
  How to stop Windows installing updates behind your back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18157968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18157968 If you don't/won't/can't use the group policy editor, I got a lot of mileage out of hibernating the PC and powering it off at the mains. You can't leave it running something overnight, but you can at least quickly get back to exactly where you left things the previous day. (Powering it off at the mains ensures that even if you have a device connected that could wake the PC up - thus putting your computer in a state where WIndows Update can reboot it - it can't. You can turn this feature off on a per-device basis with powercfg, but then one day you'll plug something new in and leave it plugged in and it'll wake the PC up while you're away and Windows Update will do its thing.)
- leptons 3y ago
  > in part because that prevents weird issues Windows tends to develop when running too long What are you using Windows Vista? I run about a dozen windows machines, half of them are VMs and none of them need to be rebooted regularly. Average uptime is over 40 days, and I only reboot when there's a big update. Windows becoming unstable entirely depends on the 3rd party software you install on it. Don't install crapware, you won't have a crap experience.
mcculley 3y ago
A long time ago, I had desktops with huge uptimes. The world has changed. I will no longer go that long without a security update. Too much is now passing through my machine.
- tasuki 3y ago
  None of my machines were ever hacked and I regularly run a year old kernel. I guess I'm an uninteresting target.
  - mcculley 3y ago
    (As far as you know, none of your machines were ever hacked.) Your luck is not good security policy. When I was getting started with Linux in 1992 and only intermittently connected to the Internet via dial-up, I celebrated long uptimes. Now that I do daily banking and other activities on a machine continuously connected to the Internet, uptimes longer than the interval between kernel security updates is just irresponsible behavior. I would prefer to not have to reboot. I know that is not the world we live in. The stability of the kernel is no longer the reason to think about uptime. I don't care that you have nothing of value connected to the Internet. I am objecting to the advice about not rebooting.
tom_ 3y ago
I reboot most weeks, just to make sure the right stuff happens when I do. (I try to do it in the middle of the day, so there's time to sort out any matters arising.) A couple of times I've discovered I've forgotten to set stuff to auto-run on login, or things turn out to have lost their settings, or stuff doesn't work for whatever reason - I'd much rather discover this at a time of my own choosing!

by tasuki 3y ago

jameson71 3y ago

Security patching?

cannonpalms 3y ago
Can all be done online, no?
- jameson71 3y ago
  Patching the kernel requires rebooting in Linux. Kernel and many other things require rebooting on Windows.
pessimizer 3y ago
What do you need to reboot to patch other than the kernel? I just restart things.
- rthnbgrredf 3y ago
  Kernel is enough attack surface to require reboot, can't ignore it.

rolandog 3y ago

Security-wise: encryption at rest? In high security scenarios you may be required to shutdown so you're forcing "attackers" to go through several layers: motherboard password, disk password, encryption password, OS user password + 2FA, etc.

2b3a51 3y ago

Full drive encryption on Linux. I close down my laptop when I'm moving around or when I leave it somewhere while I'm in another part of the building.

JohnFen 3y ago

On my personal machines? I don't shut them down or reboot very often. At work, however, I have to use Windows. In that case, I shut it down at the end of every workday, in part because that prevents weird issues Windows tends to develop when running too long. Mostly, though, it's because of those damned forced updates. Since I can't trust Windows to not reboot itself at any random point in time, having the habit of shutting down at the end of the day at least ensures that I won't accidentally lose my state overnight or over the weekend.

tom_ 3y ago
How to stop Windows installing updates behind your back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18157968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18157968 If you don't/won't/can't use the group policy editor, I got a lot of mileage out of hibernating the PC and powering it off at the mains. You can't leave it running something overnight, but you can at least quickly get back to exactly where you left things the previous day. (Powering it off at the mains ensures that even if you have a device connected that could wake the PC up - thus putting your computer in a state where WIndows Update can reboot it - it can't. You can turn this feature off on a per-device basis with powercfg, but then one day you'll plug something new in and leave it plugged in and it'll wake the PC up while you're away and Windows Update will do its thing.)
leptons 3y ago
> in part because that prevents weird issues Windows tends to develop when running too long What are you using Windows Vista? I run about a dozen windows machines, half of them are VMs and none of them need to be rebooted regularly. Average uptime is over 40 days, and I only reboot when there's a big update. Windows becoming unstable entirely depends on the 3rd party software you install on it. Don't install crapware, you won't have a crap experience.

mcculley 3y ago

A long time ago, I had desktops with huge uptimes. The world has changed. I will no longer go that long without a security update. Too much is now passing through my machine.

tasuki 3y ago
None of my machines were ever hacked and I regularly run a year old kernel. I guess I'm an uninteresting target.
- mcculley 3y ago
  (As far as you know, none of your machines were ever hacked.) Your luck is not good security policy. When I was getting started with Linux in 1992 and only intermittently connected to the Internet via dial-up, I celebrated long uptimes. Now that I do daily banking and other activities on a machine continuously connected to the Internet, uptimes longer than the interval between kernel security updates is just irresponsible behavior. I would prefer to not have to reboot. I know that is not the world we live in. The stability of the kernel is no longer the reason to think about uptime. I don't care that you have nothing of value connected to the Internet. I am objecting to the advice about not rebooting.

tom_ 3y ago

I reboot most weeks, just to make sure the right stuff happens when I do. (I try to do it in the middle of the day, so there's time to sort out any matters arising.) A couple of times I've discovered I've forgotten to set stuff to auto-run on login, or things turn out to have lost their settings, or stuff doesn't work for whatever reason - I'd much rather discover this at a time of my own choosing!