It wasn't cliché as much as it was true that you re-installed Windows a lot, prior to Windows XP since parts like the Registry would become so convoluted that it became more trouble to fix than to replace.
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Why does nobody restart their Macs?
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It wasn't cliché as much as it was true that you re-installed Windows a lot, prior to Windows XP since parts like the Registry would become so convoluted that it became more trouble to fix than to replace.
It's just another outdated and jarring observation, especially since XP came out in 2001 - like people who complain about issues with Apple relating to OS 8 or systems coming with a one button mouse...
I agree. Ran windows from 3.11 > XP until I swiched six months ago (never going back). The 16bit days were sad, no doubt. The fact that Windows still uses a registry is beyond me.
However, I never re-installed alot - mostly when changing hardware. But no matter.. my point only was that I don't agree with the statement made. XP and 2000 can pretty much take care of themselves - previous releases definately bad, but does it really matter?
But well.. enough OT.
My PowerBook routinely goes for many months without a reboot -- but then, I don't use it every day. The moment it starts to beach-ball on me, I reboot and it's back to normal. Our other desktops get rebooted about once a week.
The one week reboot advice is a bit arbitrary I know, but it does generally keep people from getting frustrated by loss of performance. I recommend it to all novices, and to anybody else who isn't after bragging rights.
No problem, now that I know what you meant.
It was sort of a joke. You must admit, there is some truth to it.
We hear the reinstall advice plenty around here, even for OSX -- mainly (I believe) from migrating Windows users who've become accustomed to fixing problems that way.
It's up there with Repair Permissions.
Still, I vaguely recall on the Amiga there was the nice little flushmem command which would clear out and sort your RAM. I would run it over and over and watch the total free RAM amount slowly increase.
Ah, placebo!
Actually, logging out and logging back in does pretty much everything (as far as house cleaning) that you really need... the only people I recommend restarting to are people who don't understand how to log out and log back in (so restarting is just easier for them).
No, absolutely not a placebo.
Close to. I've checked my var/vm directory after both log-outs and reboots. The reboot deletes all of the swapfiles except for swapfile0, which I presume is mandatory. The log out leaves another one or two behind. How and why this happens is a bit of a mystery, but logically I have to presume that some of the swapfiles are created for system use and other for applications, and only the latter gets deleted with log-outs.
No, repairing permissions can do wonders, when necessary but it's less necessary with Tiger, thankfully.
The people who repair permissions before, after, and during are being excessive but the way Panther was (and many people are still using Panther), it was necessary far too often.
I can see this as a reason, if you hit the swap like mad. I tend to get maybe 400 swaps out to disk over a 2 week period unless I am hammering my video software. Which amounts to about 2MB worth of writes to disk (plus the X GB that is always taken up by empty VM pages).
Memory leaking isn't quite what it used to be in the OS 9 days. Back then, this would be true. However, under OS X, unless the app is memory resident, this is no longer the case. Each app, having their own virtual memory space with pages mapped specifically to the process, those pages of leaked app memory are freed when the application exits. OS X does some aggressive caching, so this is rarely actually apparent from looking at top.
There are ways to defeat this, I believe (shared memory between processes, as an example), but for the most part, rebooting helps only when apps like the UI Server and code in kernel space is leaking.
However, there is another good reason for regular reboots: Apps that don't know how to properly clean up temp files! Some video tools I use routinely leave 3+ GB of temp files sitting on my startup disk, even after I quit them or log out.
i restart when there's an issue because i've found that most issues fix themselves during or after a restart. that, and for updates. other than that, i leave it on and sleep it when i'm not using it.
i just don't see any reason to shut it off every time i'm done using it.
i just don't see any reason to shut it off every time i'm done using it.
Some system elements stay active even when logged out... and their swapfiles remain active as well. But one of the features of Mac OS X since it's original release has been to cache a copy of any app you open to help it open faster the next time you open it. The problem with this is that after a while this can start slowing system performance.IJ Reilly said:
Early on, because my wife and I both used the same Mac with different accounts, I couldn't quite understand why people kept talking about slow-downs. Then I realized that I was getting logged out at least once a day where as many people were going weeks between log outs or restarts. Since my wife got her own PowerBook, I've been logging out on most of my systems at least once a week.
I save restarts for either odd system behavior or... moving systems around (where I have to shut them down). And in the case of this system (my Wallstreet running 10.2)...
7:25PM up 139 days, 20:32, 2 users, load averages: 0.52, 0.47, 0.46
It has been running perfect for more than a year now (since replacing an old hard drive in November 2005).Think about it... when was the last time you recall me complaining about any of my Macs' performance?
Think about it... when was the last time you recall me complaining about any of my Macs' performance?
I dunno, let me think...
I restart probably once a week. Sometimes more (major software updates, eSATA driver updates, etc.), sometimes less. I do believe that restarting is good every now and then. I don't like having to deal with my mac being quite that slow when I log back in (fair amount of startup items but its really too slow at first ) but its better than having it bog down later especially since HDD space is at a premium on my MBP.
Some people I know don't restart their macs so often, so I go around pressing Cmd+Ctrl+Power on their computers. That restarts them all right
Sometimes I do it just for the boot chime.
) but its better than having it bog down later especially since HDD space is at a premium on my MBP.Some people I know don't restart their macs so often, so I go around pressing Cmd+Ctrl+Power on their computers. That restarts them all right
Sometimes I do it just for the boot chime.
I always shut my macbook down every night, and if I have a problem or update i restart it. then if that doesn't work i look for the source of the problem.
System updates are the only times I will begrudgingly allow my Mac to reboot, so unless there is any other compelling reason, it goes to sleep when I'm not using it for any length of time. I don't have "Mac problems" so I never needed to reboot.
I prefer logging in and out to clear out RAM and caches, usually before an intense computing session.
I prefer logging in and out to clear out RAM and caches, usually before an intense computing session.
Every two weeks. On the hour.
Because at two weeks, I KNOW it's the computer that's running slugish, and not just my mind.
Because at two weeks, I KNOW it's the computer that's running slugish, and not just my mind.
