Poll.... How often do you reinstall your computer?

bobpace · Post by **bobpace** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 7:56 am

I have responded with how I have been with my daily Doze desktop. That is very old as I just use the upgrade route and tweak as necessary.

Since finding Mint 20.3 to tinker with (and hopefully get Linux-petent) I have rebuilt many many times. I have installed (from an SD Card) multiple times on given days where I noticed that Mint seemed to "hang" during shutdown. Having no real competence in Mint I did not try to report the issue I was seeing as I did not believe I would do more than mess up the SNR on any tech effort.

As I discover what works for me and manage to make myself concerned with bad behavior of the computer I have reinstalled as I do not feel competent to use the snapshots that I have taken to revert to earlier stages.

Regards,
Ian

rossdv8 · Post by **rossdv8** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 8:39 am

JerryF wrote: ⤴Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:18 am Whenever the newer version of Mint is released. Example: 20.3 -> 21

I couldn't find that as a Poll option, so I couldn't vote !

MurphCID · Post by **MurphCID** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:01 am

When a new version of Mint is released or I get a wild hair up and decide to install something else on the test computer.

Termy · Post by **Termy** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:29 am

[ramble]
I used to say things like "reinstall your computer", but really, it's reinstalling the operating system(s). With that in mind, I install or reinstall an OS too sporadically to answer this somewhat specific poll. I'm also confused by the use of "reinstall", because, does that mean it must be the same OS/distribution you're reinstalling in order to count? Or can it be one you haven't installed before but are newly installing?

I'm probably just overthinking it, but my freshly-woken-up brain is confuzzled.

I've used the same installation for maybe a couple of years, but within that time, I've also installed other thing to experiment, explore, and for YouTube, such as elementary OS 5.1 and 6. I then restored from a backup made with the good ol' CloneZilla; does that count in this poll? I used to install different distributions all the time, but I finally settled on my own minimalistic Ubuntu-based setup using i3WM and mainly terminals; it's what works perfectly for me. Soon, I'll be switching to a Debian base.

Anyway, interesting thread.

[/ramble]

old_noob · Post by **old_noob** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 4:04 pm

Pjotr wrote: ⤴Sat Jun 18, 2022 4:34 pm The only way an EOL system can be secure, is when it has no connection to the internet.

https://i.postimg.cc/gjBCGx0r/Firewall.png

Marie SWE · Post by **Marie SWE** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:06 pm

Termy wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:29 am [ramble]
I used to say things like "reinstall your computer", but really, it's reinstalling the operating system(s). With that in mind, I install or reinstall an OS too sporadically to answer this somewhat specific poll. I'm also confused by the use of "reinstall", because, does that mean it must be the same OS/distribution you're reinstalling in order to count? Or can it be one you haven't installed before but are newly installing? I'm probably just overthinking it, but my freshly-woken-up brain is confuzzled.

I've used the same installation for maybe a couple of years, but within that time, I've also installed other thing to experiment, explore, and for YouTube, such as elementary OS 5.1 and 6. I then restored from a backup made with the good ol' CloneZilla; does that count in this poll? I used to install different distributions all the time, but I finally settled on my own minimalistic Ubuntu-based setup using i3WM and mainly terminals; it's what works perfectly for me. Soon, I'll be switching to a Debian base.

Anyway, interesting thread.
[/ramble]

I love the [ramble] tag.

So your freshly-woken-up brain hadn't have some coffee yet.

I use words a bit loosely for everyone to understand.. first.. I'm from sweden, so playing around with words is a bit easier in swedish.. try out some swedish to get my feeling of english

Then I did wrote reinstall your system in the text, but not on the subject/poll as every new beginner/non-techie uses words like install the computer, but we who has computer as a job or as a hobby use System or OS or operating system or install the crap again or whatever slang we comes up with. But every professional or nerd get what "reinstall your computer" is, if they don't just trying to mark words to be a bit funny.

I know you did understand what i meant..

But anyway if you seriously didn't understand what I meant by reinstall. is that it is not a new computer you install for the first time.. but an computer you install for the second or the tenth time. I did also count a upgrade as for 20.1 to 20.2 as that is a new one as LTS don't have rolling releases. And those Distros that is rolling don't count.
I did install Mint20.1 on my 78year old mothers laptop. that will be 20.1 on that laptop until EOL 2025 then that one get mint 23 or what it will be by then.... And i think you know so much about OS's that i don't have to explain the difference between a rolling distro or a non-rolling.

I have a isolated lab-computer I use for work to test different scenarios on.. I can install an OS on that computer 10-20times on a day or just once every third month. But that don't count as it is just for testing and crashing it really bad and it is not an computer that I uses for daily things.
To use a backup after you have crashed your main system.. I think that counts as a X-factor reinstall or recovery install as you didn't plan to it to happen several weeks before it did happen.. but if you recover your system from an image on certain intervals to have the system clean as possible, then it is a re-install and then the poll will work as it is in intervals of time.
But if it's a VM or a lab-computer you specially uses for testing, then no that don't count as it is not a daily driver in that point of view as normal people use there computers.

Distro hoppers on there main machine is those i did think of when i put 3-6month I did have 0-3 first, but then i didn't get the Redhat and those 10years supported distros.

Should I keep on the [rambling] thingi? in case if someone misunderstand this too

I hope you understand that I'm just trying to be a little playful and I don't mean anything bad/disrespectful.

:hug:

Marie SWE · Post by **Marie SWE** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:11 pm

old_noob wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 4:04 pm
Pjotr wrote: ⤴Sat Jun 18, 2022 4:34 pm The only way an EOL system can be secure, is when it has no connection to the internet.
https://i.postimg.cc/gjBCGx0r/Firewall.png

I love that image.

To bad it was a play symbol on it otherwise I would have that as a desktop image on my Retro Win98SE computer.

I re-post the image so not everyone needs to click on the link

old_noob · Post by **old_noob** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:21 pm

Marie SWE wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:11 pmFirewall.jpg

Thank you! I was a bit lazy there. I will contact the OP and see if I can get a clean photo.

old_noob · Post by **old_noob** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:35 pm

Marie SWE · Post by **Marie SWE** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:36 pm

old_noob wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:21 pm
Marie SWE wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:11 pmFirewall.jpg
Thank you! I was a bit lazy there. I will contact the OP and see if I can get a clean photo.

It is okay to be lazy, I am that at least several times everyday.

Thanks

I would love to get that photo to my first retro computer I did have a network card on for the internet.. My win95 computer only had an telephone modem.

Portreve · Post by **Portreve** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 8:55 pm

I wonder how many people not only never reinstall their OS, but also never bother to apply any updates to it either. Or their phones/tablets/etc.

Marie SWE · Post by **Marie SWE** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:07 pm

Portreve wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 8:55 pm I wonder how many people not only never reinstall their OS, but also never bother to apply any updates to it either. Or their phones/tablets/etc.

sadly a lot of people. That's why microsoft enforced the auto updates and make it hard for users to disable them.
I do think Linux users is better on updates as they have more interest and knowledge of what a update system means.. But i don't know, it just a guess from me.

On my retro computers is the answer, never.. as they are long past EOL.

Post by **Pierre** » Sun Jun 19, 2022 11:01 pm

Marie SWE wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:07 pm On my retro computers is the answer, never.. as they are long past EOL.

an few of my PCs are the same .. way past EOL ..
- both Libre Office & Firefox, can be manually updated, though.

the couple of other PCs are Clean Installed every few years or so,
and again, with in in-place upgrade, for the mid-cycle version.

antikythera · Post by **antikythera** » Mon Jun 20, 2022 3:57 am

Portreve wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 8:55 pm I wonder how many people not only never reinstall their OS, but also never bother to apply any updates to it either. Or their phones/tablets/etc.

About the same percentage of folk who also don't bother checking the essential fluids in their cars or the state of their tyres. Some folk even in the Linux ecosystem won't bother because a family member installed Mint or Ubuntu for them and just left them to it.

Marie SWE · Post by **Marie SWE** » Mon Jun 20, 2022 9:16 am

Pierre wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 11:01 pm
Marie SWE wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 9:07 pm On my retro computers is the answer, never.. as they are long past EOL.
an few of my PCs are the same .. way past EOL ..
- both Libre Office & Firefox, can be manually updated, though.

the couple of other PCs are Clean Installed every few years or so,
and again, with in in-place upgrade, for the mid-cycle version.

Retro computer are a bit fun. my oldest is an atari from 1986 i think.. my oldest PC is from 1987 an intel 8088 4,?MHz and max upgraded with the brutal memory expansion card of 384KB so I get 1024KB ram and one 20MB HDD instead of two 5,25 floppy... I think it can be a little hard to get that one updates to that one.

Portreve · Post by **Portreve** » Mon Jun 20, 2022 11:13 am

antikythera wrote: ⤴Mon Jun 20, 2022 3:57 am About the same percentage of folk who also don't bother checking the essential fluids in their cars or the state of their tyres. Some folk even in the Linux ecosystem won't bother because a family member installed Mint or Ubuntu for them and just left them to it.

One thing I've said before and maintained for a long time is that if people treated cars the way they do computers, our roads would literally be flooded with a sea of cars and trucks abandoned everywhere because prior couldn't be bothered to learn about fuel, or that it was their responsibility to deal with refueling their own vehicles. And short of that, they'd just drive their vehicle into the ground and just keep getting new ones because they couldn't be bothered to know about service intervals, dangerous consortia which could cause tire blowouts, etc. and so forth.

A friend of mine and I share a common belief: that a great many people in society should not own computers because they're simply not responsible enough to be allowed to.

Kendoori · Post by **Kendoori** » Mon Jun 20, 2022 12:27 pm

Just another perspective. I didn't vote in the poll as I wasn't sure what choice matches my experience.

I admit to being a risk-taker upgrader. I figure confused. But I am also of the belt and suspender variety backup-wise. I keep a relatively recent complete hard drive clone that I periodically refresh. I back up my Home directory daily via an rsync varient to an extra internal M.2 hard drive, keep most of my personal data in the cloud, and use TimeShift.

I used to be nervous about somehow getting back to my Goldilocks tweaks, but have been able to move from machine to machine, hard drive to hard drive pretty easily in recent years, and I don't typically reinstall. I took a side trip a few years ago to Pop!_OS but it looks like I've been back on Mint since 2019, and since then I've done all the in-place upgrades, typically within a week or two of them being offered.

I am not a bleeding edge guy, but I do have a bunch of non-standard things that I've done, including updating Bluez to a much newer version. I was recently offered an update to Bluez, which somehow reverted me to the distro provided version, but was easily able to get back to what I preferred.

I realize that many here won't use commercial software, but I find Tony George's Aptik https://teejeetech.com/2022/04/16/aptik-22-04/ incredibly useful. Aptik does a phenomenal job of saving most of your configuration and installed software and making it incredibly easy to install fresh and go back to whatever tweaks you had previously.

am lolcat · Post by **am lolcat** » Tue Jun 21, 2022 12:30 am

whenever it eols or cant boot

Termy · Post by **Termy** » Wed Jun 22, 2022 1:33 pm

Marie SWE wrote: ⤴Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:06 pm [...]

I wanted to put out a warning for those who don't wanna read tired rambling nonsense.

I genuinely wasn't sure exactly what you meant, although I did suspect you meant a regular reinstallation of an OS, but from reading your reply, it seems we have different ideas of what it means to reinstall.

[pedantic_nonsense]
To me, restoring from a backup, for example, isn't a reinstallation, because you're quite literally not going through the installation process, but returning back to a previous state of installation by restoring a backup. I also wouldn't count going up a point-release (20.1-to-20.2, as you described), because it's done as part of a regular update, meaning a reinstallation isn't required, although you might have been thinking of a major release, like 20-to-21.

Sometimes my mind works too literally, so what might seem obvious to some, confuses the heck out of me. It's especially bad when I'm tired.

[/pedantic_nonsense]

Anyway, it's all good.

I don't know Swedish, but I do know some German, so I'm somewhat familiar with how creative and expressive Germanic languages can be.

DisturbedDragon · Post by **DisturbedDragon** » Wed Jun 22, 2022 7:16 pm

Never. No reason to. For Mint, I have some machines running hot upgrades since version 13.

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