Another reason I like Linux

I like and prefer Linux for may reasons. Today provides one example.

I like to install updates on all my Linux systems ( I don’t have any other kind ) as soon as reasonably possible after they become available. Since most Linux distributions provide a steady stream of updates, posting them on their repositories as soon as they are available, keeping current can be challenging. Especially when running a website like Both.org, because we have a relatively constant stream of visitors.

So today there are some updates to the kernel, some security updates, and a large number of other updates such as bugfixes and enhancements. It’s fine for me to reboot my internal systems, but the server and firewall I try to reboot when traffic is at a minimum.

But Linux is very flexible when dealing with updates. In many cases, a reboot is unnecessary after updating. And even when a reboot is required, I can choose to perform that at any time after the updates are actually installed.

That’s what I’m doing today — right now as I write this. Some updates are available that I feel should be installed immediately but reboots will be required. So I’m doing that. I’ve configured the Ansible playbook I use to perform the updates on 11 of my systems so that the updates will be installed on the server and firewall systems but they won’t be rebooted. All 9 other hosts will be updated and rebooted.

Now I can choose a time with zero visitors to do the reboots on the server and firewall systems. Or at least a time with very few visitors.

I’m currently working on my primary workstation, which I always update before any of my other systems. That helps prevent installing an update on my critical systems that might cause a major problem and possible lengthy outage.

The bottom line is that Linux allows me to work on my computers while they’re being updated and then choose the time I want to perform the reboots if they’re needed.

I tried posting outage warnings for reboots after updates, but that didn’t seem to make much sense for the short, frequent outages due to updates. I stopped doing that, but I still post warnings in advance for outages that I expect to last longer, such as when upgrading hardware, performing a version updated for Fedora such as from version 40 to 41, or making major modifications to my network.

So if you get an error when trying to visit Both.org, wait a few minutes and try again. We’re probably just rebooting our server.