I’m not an uptime fetishist: I know that even my beloved MacBook needs to be restarted from time to time. There are system updates, the occasional annoying software install, and even just fixing up some wonky issues. But the fact is that sometimes I’m a bad boy and I just don’t get around to restarting.
This morning, I was curious to see how long I’d gone without restarting my computer, so I fired up the old Terminal app and ran uptime (if you’re not familiar with it, give it a try; it’s fun and mostly painless!). The result surprised—dare I say, shocked?—me: my MacBook had been up for 18 days, 6 minutes.
Now, an uptime in days isn’t much of a surprise for desktops, or in mission critical servers (where 18 days would be surprisingly and perhaps even worryingly low). But the fact that my laptop has been running for two and a half weeks straight is a testament to a couple factors: the solidity of OS X and my dependance on sleep mode. My MacBook gets carried from place to place while asleep, from home, to the cafe, through airport security, et cetera. More and more, shutting down or restarting is becoming a thing of the past.
At the risk of sounding like I’m channeling Merlin Mann, I’ll say this: sometimes I appreciate the forced break that a shut down or reboot gives. It’s a moment to unplug and free yourself from the tyranny of the screen.
What about you, readers? Are reboots and shut downs a necessary evil or a lifehack waiting to happen?
I generally go from update to update without rebooting, and that's on a PowerBook. Every night I just close the lid. Every morning I open it. I reboot at system updates (or the occasional software install)and I think the longest amount of days was in the40's. There was time when Apple went over a month without issuing any restarts.
I like to restart every few days (2 - 3 maybe) so that my MacBook is fresh and ready to roll for important stuff like iMovie projects and what not.
I agree with the stability of the Mac OS. I've read many stories where some users tout uptime at months or even years.
Personally, I shut 'er down every night before bed. Saves a little energy and gets me in line the next morning for that potential OS auto-update.
My personal uptime record on my old PowerBook G4 was 91 days.
I've had my MacBook up for over 30 days, once. There's usually no need for me to restart it, and I don't turn it off when I get up and go somewhere. I just let it sleep (which other people love to criticize me for--but they have to wait several minutes to let their Windows laptops boot up).
And, ironically, having penned this post this morning, my laptop had a hard crash (total hang) this afternoon. Beware the crushing irony!
I find I restart when things begin to get a little buggy. Restart and Boom its fine again. I haven't travelled with my PB sleeping, though. I'm still a little weary of it on and in a case...
Just checked mine: up 36 days.
i've had my MBP for almost a year, and the biggest one i've had is 26 days. i use GeekTool to show my TOP system processes and UPTIME on my desktop. i even flickr'd the uptime screenshot to geek out with some buddies. anyway, i don't usually shut osx down until it gets wonky or i have to do a system update. very few apps require restarts, and even with 2GB of RAM, it just takes too dang long. i use sleep mode and the Deep Sleep widget to keep my system up, but sleepin'. :)
My longest PowerBook uptime is around 110 days -- restarted due to a system update. (Just found a screenshot png showing 103 days uptime I had e-mailed to a Windows-using friend because they never believe.) And that's running 18-20 apps concurrently with Classic.
The simple fact is that most Mac users only restart when Software Update forces them to do so.
Ironically, this causes a lot of red herrings. For example, let's say there's some issue on somebody's system that will only show up after a reboot. Like some file that's important for booting has been lost or messed up. But they haven't rebooted for weeks. Now, Apple pushes some harmless Security Update 2007-1234 to everyone. They reboot, the problem manifests, and HEY THAT SECURITY UPDATE KILLED MY XYZ...
Dan,
You're a talented young man. Your piece on FOX was better than I could have done at your age, for sure, and superior in every way regardless of the age of the author. But this one on restarting has the feel of- oh, shall we say, reaching for something- anything!- to blog about? :-)
Looking at some Xserves I manage they are running uptimes of anywhere from 57 to 198 days. They are only restarted for software updates when necessary.