Have you restarted your computer this week?

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Reboot Habits & Philosophies

  • Users span a wide spectrum: some restart daily or at end of work, others only for OS updates, and some chase months/years of uptime.
  • “Clean slate” camp values closure, reduced cruft, easier focus, and intentional workspace setup.
  • “Uptime” camp sees frequent reboot as a failure or nuisance; value instant availability and persistence of complex multi-project setups.
  • Several note that modern SSD boot times narrow the convenience gap but existing context (windows, terminals, VMs) still matters.

OS-Specific Behaviors

  • Windows: frequent reboots for updates; fast startup means shutdown may not fully reset state, whereas Restart does. Some report RAM leaks and gradual slowdown.
  • macOS: many rarely reboot, citing reliable sleep and session restore; others report increasing instability, lag, audio/input glitches, and reclaiming tens of GB of disk only after reboot.
  • Linux/BSD: desktops often reboot only for kernel updates; servers frequently run for months/years. Sleep/suspend is reported as flaky on some hardware, especially with Nvidia.
  • Mobile (iOS/Android): some security guidance and users recommend periodic reboots to clear non-persistent malware.

Sleep, Hibernate, and Fast Startup

  • Mac sleep widely praised; wake is instant with state preserved.
  • Windows and Linux sleep/hibernate described as unreliable by many (audio glitches, hangs, battery drain), prompting shutdown instead.
  • Debate over whether sleeping vs shutting down matters for power, component wear, and convenience.

Security, Encryption, and Malware

  • Full-disk encryption users often shut down when away; leaving machines on bypasses at-rest protection.
  • Some emphasize that only power-off/hibernate clears keys; logout alone may not.
  • Rebooting is framed as a defense against non-persistent malware, especially on phones with secure boot / attestation.
  • Others argue long uptimes signal missing kernel security patches; live kernel patching and immutable OSes are discussed but seen as niche or limited.

Performance, Stability, and Bugs

  • Reboots fix accumulated glitches (UI lag, cursor/monitor issues, VPNs, audio artifacts, VPN/ZScaler configs).
  • Some corporate tools (e.g., security proxies, MDM, VPNs) either force reboots or discourage them by breaking workflows after updates.

Servers vs Desktops

  • Many keep servers always-on, rebooting only for kernel/major updates, often with livepatching.
  • Some admins intentionally schedule regular reboots to detect configuration issues under controlled conditions.