LinuxPlanet: Hitting the Reset Key the Linux Way | Linux Today

LinuxPlanet: Hitting the Reset Key the Linux Way

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
May 19, 2000

[ Thanks to Kevin
Reichard
for this link. ]

“Recently Nicholas Petreley was going on about how Windows
veterans migrating to Linux have problems because they reboot
things instinctively, and how reboots are not necessarily a good
thing. I thought about what he was saying and I realized that a lot
of people have trouble adjusting to new things, and that anything
like that is likely to be stressful, what with pouring over
manuals, reading man pages and trying to get things working in the
fast paced IT world of today.”

“Well, I agree, for the most part. But rebooting is not all that
bad. Sometimes the process table can become so full that getting
the most minor task accomplished seemingly takes forever. Things
begin to slow to a crawl, the task switching becomes more and more
painful, and a reboot is simply the best thing you can do. We’re
not talking killing off a few processes–we’re talking complete and
disorderly shutdown.”

“Which is why, this past Monday, my wife Lisa stepped into
the room, pried the phone out of my right hand, pulled my laptop
out of my other hand, and drug my butt kicking and screaming off to
Put-In-Bay, Ohio, where I was sure to down a bottle or two of wine.
After that, I would emerge fresh as a Linux box after an init
6
, albeit the world would be short a few bottles of the good
stuff.”

Complete
Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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