Although I've used various versions of Linux starting way back in 1996, I've just recently abandoned Windows for good and have made Zorin OS Pro my daily driver. I get by pretty good with a few annoyances that I can't seem to overcome but I'll keep trying to find workarounds.
One of the biggest peeves I have with Zorin OS is that when updates are applied, it wants to restart. I'm sorry to say, but that's as bad as what Microsoft does and no other Linux distro that I use does that.
Typically it's whenever more serious updates get pushed down (ie the kernel for example) that the system will want you to reboot to finish them. You don't actually need to, the system will continue running on the current kernel, but if you wanted to be on the latest kernel after an update, a reboot would be required. Most other things won't require you to reboot (like application updates or small dependencies, even mesa updates, the like).
That being said, I've always been probably weird in the sense that while yes, others mostly don't required you to reboot, I've always played it safe and rebooted anyway. Sometimes if the computer is left running for a long while in that state, something could happen that may SEEM like something else caused it, when in reality it was just a reboot away from being fine.
Thank you for the reply! I agree, there are circumstances where a reboot is necessary. Since I've installed Zorin, every update required a restart and I was getting the feeling it's done by policy rather than by need. It's not the end of the world though
There's been a lot of recent kernel updates, and that may have been what has been causing the reboots being required for a fair few of them. Just even when it pops up, you can delay until you're ready, it'll just keep going on the current kernel version being run before changing over on reboot.
But if you do tend to (if this is a laptop, say) sleep and hibernate your system alot, anytime it tells you to reboot, I would most assuredly do that before doing those functions, as in the past I've found that that's where a lot of things like to creep up when not doing the reboot as requested. Ask me how I know haha.
Welcome! And feel free to ask around if you need help with something.
As mentioned, restarts are only necessary on certain occasions — mostly due to kernel updates. Even then, you are not forced to restart right away, only if you want changes to be applied. One other major difference from Windows is that updates are much quicker and don't interrupt your workflow.
All that being said, actually saying before an upgrade begins (to the user) something along the lines of "Your system will need a reboot after updates finish to complete the changes" wouldn't be a bad idea, now that I've been thinking about it for a bit. Might help alleviate that "oh god I have to restart now" reaction
Old habits die hard. I started working on mainframes in 1980 when I was 23. Reboots were considered bad because it was considered downtime which was a metric the company tried to avoid. There was one very old (1960's era) system still around where the clock would start running backwards when it was up too long!
44 years later, I still don't want to reboot! Time to get over it, I know.
No I get it, and servers are a completely different beast. But even then, if you upgrade a server, you can just leave it running and reset services that don't auto change over due to the upgrade. Meanwhile most users won't do this nowadays, especially since a reboot is pretty darn quick nowadays (like literally on my laptop is like 5-10 seconds from clicking reboot to having the login back on again).
The answer to that problem these days lies in distributed systems, where you can shift your application to different machines without losing uptime while doing maintenance work on other machines. But most desktop users don't need this type of complicated setup.
I would argue that it's even healthy to reboot every once in a while; if anything, it will save you from long-running processes that have memory leaks. Personally, I like to shutdown my machines at the end of the day, unless I'm doing something special with them that takes time, that is. SSDs are so fast these days that I barely notice the difference between cold start and resume from sleep.
All that said, it is absolutely possible to live patch the Linux kernel and skip the reboot. But, again, this isn't something aimed at desktop computers:
I have used many different distros - including currently. My experience with upgrades and reboots is consistent on all of them. I am only prompted to reboot if a kernel upgrade was in that batch (Sometimes other drivers).
When using Zorin OS, the majority of the time an upgrade was performed, a reboot was not required.
As @applecheeks37 said about, there was some teasing of the kernel recently.
If that adds to some specific software and drivers you use that also got some upgrades that necessitated a reboot, this may have created a temporary perception bias.
Is it stable now for my acer unit ? So i can remove pop os and install zorin ? Last time i used it on the acer machine it whas lagging alot. Did the kernel update fixes this ?
I totally get your annoyance about those restarts—it's like, seriously? Just when you think you’re in control, bam! Update time. Maybe they think they’re making things smoother, but it’s just a buzzkill! But, it's likely for the greater good. If the update has something to do with the drivers or the kernel itself, then it needs a restart, though you can choose not to, unlike Windows. If it is something like the software apps, like Firefox or Blender, you're good, and you don't need to restart your PC.
