Jorisvandijk.com

Living on Linux

Your Linux uptime is proving nothing

So in the Linux space, it's somehow cool to have been running your system without any reboot for a long time.

Folks get off on how long their system has been up and are getting kudos for it, which is stupid. When you've gotten an update to your kernel, you should reboot. Hell, some software would like a reboot after an update, but no. Uptime is the magic word and people are aweing it for some reason.

I for one think this is stupid. I really do. Personally I am more impressed with how long you've been able to keep your current install alive. How long ago did you install your current system and how long have you been able to keep it going?

stat -c %w /

The output of the command above will show when your system was first installed. It is, in my opinion far cooler to be able to show you've been able to keep a system alive for an x amount of time, than to say you've been able to not reboot for a said amount of time.

Personally I am more impressed by people maintaining a system well for a long time, than people that were able not to press a power button.