> When put together it really does work beautifully.
Except for the forced reboots because their OS still can't completely update itself at run time.
Except for the forced reboots because their OS still can't completely update itself at run time.
Enterprise Linux also has the feature of updating the kernel on-the-fly. The infrastructure for it has been open-source, and anyone could build a similar service for themselves if they wanted.
In fact, with Nano server, Microsoft is trying to go that direction too -- the less you have running, the easier to avoid reboots.
But the real solution is trying to be reboot-tolerant by having a slight bit of redundancy, I would think. Uptime matters more for pet/snowflake servers than for cattle....
What you go on to describe sounds a lot like kexec, and a kexec is the same thing as a reboot for everything on a computer except the hardware. The new kernel during a kexec starts with a freshly-booted state.
What I meant was – and perhaps I wasn't clear enough – updating the kernel in-memory, while it runs so that even your userspace apps notice nothing - except perhaps a few fractions of seconds of time slipping by - and continue running while the kernel they're running on top of is patched with new code.
This has been possible for a while on Linux. It began with, IIRC, Ksplice as a college-project, then a startup, then bought-out by Oracle for Oracle Linux, then independent efforts at similar implementations by both Red Hat and Suse, which eventually got merged together and mainlined into Linus's tree.
At home I run Arch Linux, and I do updates almost every day. Usually my uptime can easily be measured in weeks.
At work I have Windows 7 on my laptop. I have to restart my laptop twice a week at a minimum, because every tiny fucking update requires a restart. And if I don't then it nags like a little bitch every 2-4 hours and breaks my concentration. And if you take too long then it forces the update and your work is lost. I hate having to close all my apps every 2 days and wait for ages while it restarts. From a user's perspective, Windows is the shittiest desktop experience available in a corporate environment.
</rant>
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Display_Driver_Model...