Debian admin here. Even Debian gets regular kernel upgrades that like a reboot afterwards. Security updates are more important than uptime. Also regular testing for clean recovery after a reboot is a must so a power outrage doesn't bring any new surprises with it. Also test your backup restores regularly.

This is why we have UPS ;-)

My father was an HPUX admin that had a server with an uptime of >12 years

Heard of tuptime? I've been using it for a while now, I think I like it.

System startups: 151 since 18:00:05 10/11/15 System shutdowns: 137 ok + 13 bad System life: 9yr 223d 1h 27m 47s

Longest uptime: 106d 5h 34m 28s from 14:17:10 26/03/22 Average uptime: 23d 4h 32m 0s System uptime: 99.81% = 9yr 216d 12h 31m 51s

Longest downtime: 4d 23h 30m 48s from 10:36:53 14/09/23 Average downtime: 1h 2m 46s System downtime: 0.19% = 6d 12h 55m 56s

Current uptime: 25d 0h 34m 25s since 20:25:37 15/11/25

So, you never update the kernel?

Or if you have a UPS and backup generator or a house battery (do these need a UPS as well still?) it will tell you how long since you setup the system.

At least in my experience the chances that I move or replace hardware are much higher than the chances for a power outage.

Are we not doing kernel upgrades?

Pretty sure everybody is missing the joke. The joke is that Debian packages are so stable and stale that you likely will need a reboot before an update.

Also, it's a joke....please patch your boxes, k?

man what's uptime?

I got obsessed with uptime in the early 2000s, but for my desktop Slackware box. It ran a bunch of servers and services and crap but only for me, not heavy loads of public users. Anyway, I reached 6 years of uptime without a UPS and was aiming for 7 when a power outage got me.

“Uptime” — aka the anxiety meter for every sysadmin.

What if I have a really good UPS with like a whole day's worth of juice?

Can I ask, what is the advantage of a Debian server over a True Nas one? Asking because I set up True Nas and wondering if I should switch it to Debian

I like having a consistent update and reboot schedule. Uptime feels overrated over stability and clearing the RAM occasionally.

I definitely have some Docker containers that randomly stop working, and they are more often consistently fixed by a reboot of the machine rather than a reboot of the container or the Docker service.

At some point when I am less busy again I think I am gonna swap back to a debian based system because my experience on arch and red hat systems just hasnt been as good (this may be because I started on Debian based systems and keep trying to use commands that dont work on the other ones out of muscle memory)

I get bored every so often and move all the important stuff to an external drive or a separate internal one and completely change my os

I am on manjaro but I have also run arch, red hat, void, mint, Debian, Ubuntu and a bunch of others that I either put on laptops or something similar as messing around with devices

Tails and slitaz have to be my favorite to run from a USB but peppermint isn't the worst

Why type uptime when w is sufficient?