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

[BrianI]

It depends.

If I am in a distro hopping phase, then several times a month.

If not, then I try to avoid doing a reinstall, except when it is absolutely necessary.

However I am very tired of distro hopping, and watching talking head linux review videos on youtube, and then getting an inkling of trying something different. Then becoming unsatisfied, then trying another distro. Especially since I'd much rather use my system for photo editing etc, rather than wasting time trying different distros.

I always find that Linux Mint gives a nice experience, nothing too fancy, (nor endless preferences for your settings for your settings options like KDE), but just quietly lets you get on with your work.

I agree completely at this point, I have tried so many distros, and I always keep coming home to Mint.

Maybe if I forced myself to spend months using a different distro, I would enjoy it better, but I always find there is something either niggly, or annoying on other distros, which makes me miss just how reliable Linux Mint is.

[MurphCID]

It depends.

If I am in a distro hopping phase, then several times a month.

If not, then I try to avoid doing a reinstall, except when it is absolutely necessary.

However I am very tired of distro hopping, and watching talking head linux review videos on youtube, and then getting an inkling of trying something different. Then becoming unsatisfied, then trying another distro. Especially since I'd much rather use my system for photo editing etc, rather than wasting time trying different distros.

I always find that Linux Mint gives a nice experience, nothing too fancy, (nor endless preferences for your settings for your settings options like KDE), but just quietly lets you get on with your work.

I agree completely at this point, I have tried so many distros, and I always keep coming home to Mint.

Maybe if I forced myself to spend months using a different distro, I would enjoy it better, but I always find there is something either niggly, or annoying on other distros, which makes me miss just how reliable Linux Mint is.

I can't do that being a bit ADHD, and I want it to work NOW! I have settled on my distros at this point, I think. If the old Darter Pro keeps having issues I might be forced to re-install LMDE 5.

[MurphCID]

Well it is working again, but I think I am going to have to start firing it up at least daily to keep it happy.

[half-word]

Well you forgot to add my answer: "never"

Well my longer answer would be "on failure". Sometimes it's because the disk fails so I have no other choice. Sometimes it's because the operating system becomes so broken that it would take more time to repair it than to reinstall and reconfigure it.

I hate fresh installs as I have tons of system-wide customizations and software installed from different sources that I find it a chore and very time consuming to do. Every computer I use is also my daily driver and I don't feel like messing too much with its usability once it is fully configured. Also, as my job is computing related, I try to avoid anything that makes me sit even longer in front of a computer!

Sometimes I even prefer a challenge of doing exactly the opposite and convert an existing system to another rather than doing a fresh install. I've converted Mint to Ubuntu and vice versa (Franken-Mint lol) multiple times, converted LMDE to Devuan and so on.

[MurphCID]

Now that I have quit distro hopping my answer is only on update/upgrades. For Windows, I remember the old rule of thumb to re-install once a year to clean up registry and keep it from crashing.

[AscLinux]

Can't vote. My install is more than 16 years old. Third motherboard by now. Fourth or fifth hard drive, actually NVMe now. Wifes install is from 2004, also third box. Me voting would not be right anyway, it is not Mint.

[MurphCID]

Can't vote. My install is more than 16 years old. Third motherboard by now. Fourth or fifth hard drive, actually NVMe now. Wifes install is from 2004, also third box. Me voting would not be right anyway, it is not Mint.

No, you certainly can, it does not specify Mint.

[billyswong]

I do hot upgrade so the only times I reinstall my computer they are for switching Linux distribution. Ubuntu with GNOME 2 => LMDE with Mate => LM with Mate

[weedeater64]

I never reinstall my computer. I move it, very rarely. I replace it as needed, but I've never reinstalled it.

[MurphCID]

I reinstalled POP!_OS on the new Darter Pro yesterday, just to keep all my ports working.

[rossdv8]

I keep checking to see if 'When it Breaks' has been added

[Pjotr]

Every two years, at the launch of a new Mint series. I like a clean machine.

[majpooper]

Every two years, at the launch of a new Mint series. I like a clean machine.

Same here for my daily driver and the systems I support for others. However I am always installing something in VMs and on a few test rigs I have to play with.

[MurphCID]

Every two years, at the launch of a new Mint series. I like a clean machine.

I have come around to your view on it. A clean machine and clean installation is the way to go.

[rossdv8]

I used to think that until I realised a big mob of config files live in ~home/ and even after firing up a brand new install on a brand new drive, when I restore my /home/me stuff I end up restoring any problems caused by config files for a large number of Apps.

Now I just keep a folder called OS Fixes, and inside, there's one for Mint (and its Apps) and another for Xfce.
These find anything I have come across previously and had to fix, like disappearing Title bars or ~lock files that stop LibreOffice opening certain documents etc.

Of course, there's always an upside. reinstalling /home gets me all my Theme mods and my Conky and other things. But it is a pain when the glitches follow me into a brand new install. Another up side is that I usually have a pretty good idea what NOT to blame Mint for

[majpooper]

Bold of you to assume I can make it 3 months without messing my os up bad enough that reinstalling is the easiest solultion xD

Just curious - what on earth? What are the types of things you are doing that mess up your OS to the point that you have to reinstall so often. Are you doing a lot of experimenting, testing ?
Don't get me wrong I am not criticizing or think you are doing anything wrong it's just seems crazy to need to reinstall that often.

I did that a bit in my early days of learning and experimenting - I was the proverbial "monkey with a machine gun at the mall" I pretty much found some unique ways to break my system or garbage it up. Now I install lots of times in VMs and on a few test rigs to look at distros and to test install scripts etc. But on my daily driver I can't remember the last time I did something that required me to do a fresh install other than an upgrade.

Right now I have my wife and half a dozen family and friends who have been cruising along on 19.3 for quite a while now - none needed a reinstall. I am kind of nervous contemplating updating i.e. fresh install on all of them early next year.

[MurphCID]

Bold of you to assume I can make it 3 months without messing my os up bad enough that reinstalling is the easiest solultion xD

LOL! I used to do that in WIndows all the time.

[The Muffin Man]

Getting ready to do another re-install if I have problems after KDE Neon went to jammy.
A bunch of disabled ppas and who knows what else. It makes me want to go back to Debian sid and roll.

[majpooper]

I trial and error my way through linux until I either reach a satisfactory outcome (not necessarily the goal I set out to accomplish) or everything is so fubar that a fresh install seems infinitely simpler than trying to undo the havoc I've wrought.

Ah yes . . . . grasshopper I have walked that road - drive on brother.

[MurphCID]

I trial and error my way through linux until I either reach a satisfactory outcome (not necessarily the goal I set out to accomplish) or everything is so fubar that a fresh install seems infinitely simpler than trying to undo the havoc I've wrought.

Ah yes . . . . grasshopper I have walked that road - drive on brother.

I remember the old windows days: "Hmmm I wonder what will happen if I do this? &(&T^&$@@!!#!!!" Since that blew up Windows, format and re-install. That happened all too often as I poked and prodded the system. In Linux I am not comfortable enough to start doing that....