How much do you keep an installation and which was the longest/shortest time you kept an Eos installation?
I hope it’s not too general questions to ask, but I’m curious, cuz on mint and win11 I haven’t reinstalled in 2 yrs, but had many updates over the time
Lately I reinstalled it like 3-4 times cuz I went through Nvidia drivers and multiple DEs till I Stopped at cinnamon cuz or works for me the best, and I like it
Ah, and also , do you use desktop or laptop? I’m using a laptop:7300hq+8gb ram + mx150
I typically reinstall about once a year, because I try things and it’s good to get a fresh start.
I last installed last month when I got a new pc (mid tower). My customizations take me about 15 minutes…not that much off stock.
Only if I want to fundamentally change something that is more work to change than reinstall.
On my main workstation, I basically never reinstall. On my laptops I tend to play around more and test things so I sometimes opt to reinstall to try something new.
An installation can go indefinitely if you want it to. There should never be a need to reinstall.
When you first start and want to try a bunch of new things it may be better to reinstall in situations like DE switches. Once you figure out what you prefer, you shouldn’t have to do it anymore.
this is a great question and lots of great answers.
but if I find a distro I love I will burn it down by accident trying it out, kicking the tires, doing stupid stuff you didn’t know was stupid. that wil costs you a couple new installs in the first month. the more curious of us have to live like this.
but in general: I’ve tried and enjoyed a lot of DEs but since 2018 I’ve pretty much stuck to one (budgie).
This is a factor. Personally I am inclined to enjoy my hassle-free time and update and not even consider a reinstall for at least 2 years. And likely go about 4.
I joined Endeavour last summer, bricked it once, but I really have everything where I like it and won’t think about your question another 2 years.
here’s when I think about it: the distro releases a new version so updated and different that I’d feel better with fresh install than update the rolling over old old stuff. we just went to Galileo (?) here or something after cassini when I joined…and there was not enough change to warrant a fresh install.
short version: 2-4 years
also don’t forget hardware is a factor…your question can’t be answered–to me–without qualifying some things but still a good question
Following the golden rule “if it works, leave it alone & DON’T mess with it”, I’ve been running the same EOS from the very first moment OUR distro came into existence.
On three laptops. But actually, one had the honour to get the " proper" install from scratch. The other two laptops just used cloned SSDs from the first laptop.
As a rule of thumb, I always take some time to “study” what is to be updated/upgaded before I press the button, read the Arch Linux news & check with our forum for potential issues.
Cheers
Hello Chris
I would say from 19 hobbyist (BOINC) production machines, only the initial time since april 2023.
They are still running like the Duracell Bunny
But the real number would be 16 initial.
1 latptop got a new Western Digital ssd drive.
2 machines, I did reinstall because of my lack of knowledge for a BIOS setting that wasn’t right for an update (CSM).
In a perfect world, I would be on 18 one intial install on 19 machines.
Just to give you an estimate, these are kept up to date everyday on a compute 24hrs ON, 24hrs OFF (cool down and patch, if you want )
Let me ask you this: EOS is virtually a pre-configured (with a handful of extra tools) Arch system. Supposing that your system was Vanilla Arch, would you still consider to re-install it with every new Arch iso?
On my test computer -all the time, that’s kind of the point.
My desktop once so far, granted it’s only a year old. I’ve had installs as long as 3 or 4 years though. I’d have to find the post. I know folks in the 10 year range.
My last reinstall was a month ago. Because I found an incredible wallpaper and I wanted to run the distro so I could use it.
I have a desktop and laptop.
Currently neither on Arch or EOS (shh, don’t tell anyone)
not to deflect but I’ve never wanted, used, or desired vanilla arch. Endeavour seemed the logical way into Arch. Garuda is an an obnoxious misfire.
I think you are asking if we throw Endeavour in the ocean, then predicate my 2-4 year reinstall policy and transfer it hypothetically to vanilla arch…
…my response remains identical. I’m not confident saying ‘new iso’ meets my basic ‘if OS changed significantly’ premise. Let’s say it does. If DE satisfaction and drive health were taken into consideration, then YES if the ‘new iso’ fit my ‘significantly different’ criteria.
My ‘significantly different’ criteria? did any core elements ditch python and get re-written in go or rust? did wayland show up and X11 on life support? or in the gnome stack? any other re-writes to yay/pacman that tied the devs up for a year? ETC ETC.
I have to be pedantic here because some rolling releases cover this stuff in the rolling update, and some delay an iso until rolling update kinks worked out.
In principle, to answer your question, if it’s a significant enough change I stand by my 2-4 yr stance.
edit-had an extra word in a post with too many words
My desktop has been on Fedora for quite a while now, that’s not really a secret. It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever used. Everything works. It works well. I don’t do anything but allow updates when I power off. It’s what I needed to get the wife using it and I wanted to make sure I could help if there was something wrong.
The laptop is on Debian stable was just a testing playing around thing until I found the Jurassic Park wallpaper, and I can’t get rid of the wallpaper still. It’s so freaking awesome.
I think at this Thinkpad which started on Arch for a couple years until I got my Lenovo Legion has since had just about every distro on distrowatch top 100 on it at some point.
From Arch to some Z distro thing, and everywhere in between.
It’s had probably every EOS iso, and a majority of the testing iso on it too. Lol
