how long does linux stay stable?

[TotalFoo]

The longest I've had a Win OS running before I had to format and reinstall (defrag & scan disk didn't help much) is about a month. Would it be foolish of me to think that I could run linux (more to the point mandrake 7.2) for a year with out scraping it all and redoing it? I hate losing all my Mp3s and other downloads every month. I've been experimenting with linux and difrent distros for the past 4 months so I know all my hardware works under linux (never had it all working at the same time or under the same distro though). I'm hopping to make linux my main OS with a win backup. So back to my original question how long will linux run stable if I only run stable release programs and no dev release programs?
~TotalFoo

------------------
"Don't take life so seriously... nobody gets out alive anyway"

[Evil Jeff]

Forever. As long as you don't screw up something (which I have, to the point where it would be easier to reinstall than fix it with my knowledge), it runs fine forever. Or, at least your hardware is so old it isn't supported anymore. I recommend debian if you want to go for max uptime. I haven't rebooted since I installed my os (about a month ago). Among linux users, there is sort of a running contest on who has had their computer up for the longest time without rebooting. I'd like to see win98 do that!

Evil Jeff
www.hellincorporated.com (http://www.hellincorporated.com)

[ph34r]

In almost 2 years of linux at home, I have only *had* to reinstall when changing distros, repartitioning, and when I have completely fscked something up on my very own (hint: never try to strip the debug symbols out of your /lib directory.)

[Frizzle Fry]

Even running dev programs shouldn't screw up your install. A lot of linux programs are in development basically forever, so don't be scared of using htem just because they haven't reached 1.0 . They might have bugs in them, but they shouldn't destroy your system. Also, keep in mind that the best way to protect your system is not to use it as root unless you have to. Theoretically, from your user account you shouldn't have priviledges to do anything too dangerous that would make you have to reinstall.

[Ig0r]

I'm getting *uptimes* of weeks on my main linux system running the unstable tree of debian. My router (a pentium 100 with 32MB ram) currently has an uptime of 59 days with a constant load (seti client and ssh+gcc for school projects).
Because linux doesn't (read: really shouldn't) randomly change system settings because of dumb hardware or little gremlins in your cpu, if your system is stable now, and you never make major upgrades (read: upgrade programs with a million non-upgraded dependencies) it'll be just as stable in three years as it will be in three hours.

[maxl stylee]

heck..
just go to www.uptimes.net (http://www.uptimes.net)

they've got a linux computer up there running for over 5 years without rebooting.

ph34r it.
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Alex

[brento73]

You have to reinstall every month?!?!

MY GOD MAN!

Run screaming away from windows right now!

As a video game freak, I still run Win98 more than linux, and I often leave IT going for weeks without a reboot. I can't imagine having to redo everything every month. I've never had cause to use linux for more than a few days at a time, but from what I've heard and seen in person, it never quits. The only times I've had to reinstall is when I mess it up trying to get Unreal Tournament to run and crap like that.

Basicly, if you use a computer for non-game purposes, you NEED linux NOW!

------------------
Brent O'Dell
MCP and Linux Newbie

[plasmid]

not that I am a proponent of windows, but reinstalling every month!?!?! Linux is by far the better OS, but windows doesn't suck that much. I may have to reboot my win system every 3 or 4 days, but I have only had to reinstall it once, and that was because I was doing some serious, and ill advised screwing with the registry. Also, when you do reinstall, it is possible to save important data (e.g. downloads, critical MP3 files) only programs that add stuff to the system directory of windows really need to be reinstalled...and even that you can get arround if you saved a back up copy of your system directory. Ok, enough said about windows...I guess its just not meant for you, which is a good thing. Stick with linux and your problems should go away once you get used to it.

-plasmid

[Henrycoffin]

I have been running my linux server now for about 2 yrs, it never gets switched off and other than the occasional reboot when i have upgraded something or other it has been going non stop for all that time.

[dacoopsta]

My god ......every month, I test all kinds of apps and tweak and push my Win98Se setup and I haven't reinstalled windows in about 7-8 months and that was just to add a new ATA/66 and A new Voodoo ...... I like starting Fresh with new hardware. (only about 3 blue screens and that was form the net... NDIS crash.)

Of course my linux box, I have had to reload a bunch (of course Im very new to it) but I won't blame "LINUX" since its ME not knowing how to tweak the linux sys. :0)

[Sweede]

Originally posted by maxl stylee:
heck..
just go to www.uptimes.net (http://www.uptimes.net)

they've got a linux computer up there running for over 5 years without rebooting.

ph34r it.
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Alex
Max uptime: 1662 days, 17:11
OS: Linux 1.43

[Mikenell]

dacoopsta: I do exactly the same, whenever I add ANYTHING, even RAM, I just have to format and reinstall everything!
Mikenell

[jakieboy]

Sweede are you feeling ok?

You know you're DEFENDING Linux here???

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Jakieboy!

[vvx]

Well, one of my boxes..

andromeda:/# uptime
1:44pm up 58 days, 13:18, 2 users, load average: 0.40, 0.22, 0.19
andromeda:/#

58 days ago I did a kernel recompile..

[Counterstrike]

Originally posted by maxl stylee:
heck..
just go to www.uptimes.net (http://www.uptimes.net)

they've got a linux computer up there running for over 5 years without rebooting.

ph34r it.
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Alex

Lol http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif The first Windows computer is a Win98SE one... #133 .... 202 Days. What a joke. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

[cdvl65]

Anyone got the uptimes client running...if so how do you get it running?

[A_Lawn_GNOME]

With my best effort, I've been able to lock the keyboard and screen. I was able to telnet in to fix it and during the whole process still shared the internet connection. My brother playing UT never got lagged, not even once.

The reason for the lockup was Nvidia's crappy TNT driver and OpenGL. Can't wait for a GeForce.

[OS]

How long does Linux stay stable?
Well how long will it take for your hardware to screw up? How long will it take for you to screw the system up? I have run Linux on a Toshiba 2100CDS and it gets shutdown every night as it wouldnt take long for this POS to over heat and hurt something? It's less than a year old and already has a new motherboard(thank god for warrantees)

Owen


------------------
Owen Stampflee - info@1320web.com
1320webmedia - Affordable, High Performance Internet Solutions.
AOL Screenname: info 1320web - Website: www.1320web.com (http://www.1320web.com)

[DemonKnight]

If you format and install WIN 98 and nothing else and just let it set there never touching it or any thing it should go for ever waiting for somthing to happen. but it probably wouldent because it would end up running scan disk or somthing and get BSOD. Once I get a working modem in Linux my windows partition is going to be used very rarely.

[A_Lawn_GNOME]

I think that Windows will crash after 43 days, no exceptions. If you don't want Windows to crash, then you need to spend $300 more to get Win2k, which will not run a good number of Win9x games (there's a list somewhere of what does work, I forgot the URL).

[iDxMan]

Originally posted by cdvl65:
Anyone got the uptimes client running...if so how do you get it running?

Which one? I compiled the "upclient" which is written in C, but there are many others. Some, which are also in C, and others in perl...

Either one shouldn't be that hard.

-r

[iDxMan]

Originally posted by OS:
How long does Linux stay stable?
Well how long will it take for your hardware to screw up? How long will it take for you to screw the system up? I have run Linux on a Toshiba 2100CDS and it gets shutdown every night as it wouldnt take long for this POS to over heat and hurt something? It's less than a year old and already has a new motherboard(thank god for warrantees)

Owen



I've had some of my PCs up for months. The only reason to take them down was for moving/new hardware/decided to reload slackware/etc...


-r

[prince_kenshi]

Here's a tip, if you don't want to lose your stuff when you reinstall Windows, then don't format. I've found that simply installing Windows typically fixes problems, and if it doesn't, there's a command called "del c:\windows." Of course this may vary on your setup though. Take it from me, I've had to reinstall Windows many times (though not once a month).

------------------
Prince Kenshi
Son of Bahamut

[Tiger]

I've had my Linux box up and running (no reboots) for 12 weeks. I was running RC5 on that box and the only reason I took it down was hardware installation. I was running Mandrake 6.0.

My windows box can go for 2, maybe 3 days before it starts acting weird and I have to reboot. That machine has twice as much memory as the nixxer (128M). I usually get about 6 months out of an Winders install before things get so hosed up that I need to flush the drive.



------------------
Badges? We don't need no stinking badges.

[This message has been edited by Tiger (edited 05 January 2001).]

[rundll32]

Why do yo guys say that no more uptime than 43 days in windows ?
I've been using win98 for 2 years and it never crashed. Simply you must know how to
use that OS ( I mean cleaning junk files, optimising registry etc.)How do you think Microsoft serves its site? On linux box?
I had to reinstall windows only when I was a newbie. Same thing I'm doing now with Linux. I now it's not the best way to learn it out but installing Linux box is quite easy too, so why not reinstalling till I get a guru ?

rundll32

[TaeShadow]

Originally posted by rundll32:
Why do yo guys say that no more uptime than 43 days in windows ?
I've been using win98 for 2 years and it never crashed.
You're saying that you have ran Windows 98 for 2 years without rebooting?

How do you think Microsoft serves its site? On linux box?
Well, they certainly don't run it on Windows 98. They run Windows 2000, which is considerably more stable.

[iDxMan]

Originally posted by TaeShadow:

You're saying that you have ran Windows 98 for 2 years without rebooting?


LOL. I highly doubt that. You touch 1 tiny bit of networking, or anywhere else in the control panel and it wants to reboot.

-r

[anti_seen]

This company that I'm working for part-time has (I'm not kidding) over 700 peer-to-peer Win95 computers, It's like a rebootathon in there. It's nice to come home to my Linux network where my router has a better uptime than any system they have ever owned.

------------------
Radio Shack, You've got questions...
We've got blank stares.

[ferrol]

Just a suggestion:

Why don't you partition the drive, have all your data on one and the system stuff on the other. That way when you wipe just do the one and leave youe data and mp3's safe in their own partition. Simple

On the Linux front Of course its stable thats one of the main points of getting the Linux OS.

If Win98 keeps dying on you why don't you use NT or 2000 or even 95?

[Kalten]

It's true that Windows 9x needs all those reboots and sometimes even reinstalls. But thats purely because of the way it was written (read...badly!).

Windows is still, and I think always will be, the best platform for playing games on. If your looking for a system that serves games then you will look to stuff like Linux or NT Server.

As a very dedicated games player I want the most out of my system in terms of performance, so for me striping down my Windows install and tweaking it for maximum gameplay is all part of the fun. If you do any serious benchmarks of systems you will find that (unfortunatly) Linux suffers from poor results (having said that, it can also depend on your hardware and the available drivers)

As was said above If you want to do non games work then I recommend looking at Linux.

I don't recommend it for the average office worker though as it's just not user friendly enough (yet).

Going back to the original post - If you follow the basic ideas for partitioning your drives that Linux follows then you can wipe and reinstall Windows (any version) without losing you data/mp3 files!

I hope I havn't got anyones back up with this lot http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

Alex

[mrBen]

Man, even Win95 seems stable compared to reinstalling every month. Thank goodness for Linux!! (Mind you, my Win95 now crashes if you try and view the contents of c drive. I only keep it cause I have an internal modem and I need my e-mail - not long before I go external I hope!! - oh and the error is because of some shady re-partitioning that killed part of my FAT when I was installing Linux. oops) http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif



------------------
mrBen

[milanuk]

Originally posted by iDxMan:
LOL. I highly doubt that. You touch 1 tiny bit of networking, or anywhere else in the control panel and it wants to reboot.

-r


Somehow, despite my best efforts, people in this small town are starting to call me w/ their computer problems. I try to explain that I don't use M$ Windows regularly anymore, and they might be better off going into the city (ok, bigger town) to a computer shop that deals w/ broken Windows on a regular basis. When they ask what I use, I tell them Linux, because Windows crashed one time too many. They respond 'My Windows box never crashes... ever'. After a bit of digging, it's usually people who a) don't use it very much, b) don't have _anything_ extra installed c) turn it off every nite. Also, they didn't seem to consider a 'freeze' or 'lockup' a crash. They are so used to those that to them a 'crash' means that their computer literally went up in smoke and their hard drive is ruined, etc.

Monte



------------------
There are basically three kinds of men. There
are the ones who learn by reading. Then there are
the few who learn by observation. The rest just
have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

[Strike]

LOL, anti_seen - "rebootathon". That's a cool word, I'll have to use that if you don't mind http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/tongue.gif

I don't think the whole "not designed to stay up for 6 months straight without crashing" thing about Win9x is a bad thing. I mean, when the first version of Win9x (read: MS-DOS) came out, people didn't keep their computers on any longer than for what it took to do what you needed to do. Then it was turned off. But, since everything has been layered on top of that architecture since then, it still caters best to those computing habits. Of course, the extra layers also make it crash even while you are doing things even if you are adopting the old practice of "Turn on--->Do stuff--->Turn off". Now THAT is a Bad Thing (TM).

[beetle4418]

Is formating your hard drive that often bad for it?

[Strike]

Originally posted by beetle4418:
Is formating your hard drive that often bad for it?

In the strictest sense, yes. But practically, not really. I mean, it does reduce the lifetime of the drive by doing more activity with the heads, and hence introducing more wear and tear. But, compared to other activity, occasional formatting doesn't really introduce any great difference in activity, so it doesn't really reduce the lifetime appreciably.

[iDxMan]

Originally posted by milanuk:

Somehow, despite my best efforts, people in this small town are starting to call me w/ their computer problems. I try to explain that I don't use M$ Windows regularly anymore, and they might be better off going into the city (ok, bigger town) to a computer shop that deals w/ broken Windows on a regular basis. When they ask what I use, I tell them Linux, because Windows crashed one time too many.

lol. Same boat here. The hard part is telling them that I'm willing to setup linux, but they will need to take some time and learn. 100% so far have opted to stay with windows. They come over and say "wow your desktop looks really cool" or "its been up how long?", but don't seem to want to take the time and 1) learn something for themselves or 2) listen to me drone on about "nerd computer things".

-r




[This message has been edited by iDxMan (edited 11 January 2001).]

[iDxMan]

Originally posted by Strike:
LOL, anti_seen - "rebootathon". That's a cool word, I'll have to use that if you don't mind http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/tongue.gif


Hm. I'll have to remember that next time one of our beautiful M$ product, at work, falls over (tm) <- now that's an expected thing.

-r

[anti_seen]

Damn, I need to start copyrighting my words... does the DMCA cover that?

------------------
Radio Shack, You've got questions...
We've got blank stares.

[fow99]

Maxl,
I am confused here. The third of the top 10 machines runs Windows 2000 for 16xx days. But... how long has it been around?


Originally posted by maxl stylee:
heck..
just go to www.uptimes.net (http://www.uptimes.net)

they've got a linux computer up there running for over 5 years without rebooting.

ph34r it.
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Alex

[Lorithar]

*grins*

Linux will stay stable on your hardware as long as you don't massively fart around with the kernel code. Heck ... I have a network card that has a poorly designed slot face, which I've never gotten locked down properly. Once in a while the cats bash it loose. I just reseat it. Boom ... internet is back. Now.. I don't recommend swapping hardware in your box without powering it down, however the logic here is that the card unseated whilst the box was running *just* enough to take it out of service, and I'm just reversing the process.

My windows boxen, (two both running 98 retail) have been stable and more or less solid for two years. Generally they don't require reboots more than once or twice a month. Linux ... uptime is 41 days... last reboot was for a kernel change. (added scsi)

[iDxMan]

Originally posted by fow99:
Maxl,
I am confused here. The third of the top 10 machines runs Windows 2000 for 16xx days. But... how long has it been around?


As stated in their FAQ the protocol used is fairly simple and thus uptimes can be easily faked. Its along the same lines of a linux box being up for 3 years on a 2.2.x kernel. Exactly --> before it came out.

I assume you are speaking of the "Mondas" entry. Pretty lame if you ask me. Especially when you see the "Last Uptimes" graph. I mean if you're going to fake it, at least START with the PC being up for 5 years. Don't go up/down every day, then spike up.. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

-r


[This message has been edited by iDxMan (edited 21 January 2001).]

[Craig McPherson]

Two years ago, I installed Debian for the very first time.

That same installation is still alive and kicking, after upgrading through 2 versions, 200 full package upgrades, and CONSTANT use and experimentation.

Well, at least it WAS still up, until a few days ago, when I installed FreeBSD on my third hard drive, which for some reason screwed up the partition table on my first hard drive, by moving all the partition boundries half a cylinder back, and changing all the partition IDs to random types.

It was that blasted Daemon, I know it was -- something strange has happened to my system every time I've tried to play around with FreeBSD. The first time, my floppy drive physically died, now this. That thing is evil, I tell you. Evil.

Anyway, there are still some Linux 1.x boxes kicking around from five years ago or more, some with uptimes measured in years -- yes, years since a reboot. Some systems started out with Linux 0.1, no distro (this was before there WERE distros), and is still kicking AND up-to-date, with no reinstallations along the way.

------------------
http://users.ipa.net/~cmcpher/paminv.gif DEBIAN (http://www.debian.org/) http://users.ipa.net/~cmcpher/paminv.gif
It turns girls into statues!

[This message has been edited by Craig McPherson (edited 21 January 2001).]