PDA

View Full Version : How often do you do a clean install of your OS?



xequence
November 5th, 2005, 03:11 AM
I just thought it was weird that I do a clean install of ether windows or ubuntu (I dual boot) on a weekly basis. How often does everyone else do a clean install?

I deleted ubuntu, put fedora on, deleted fedora, put ubuntu back on last week. This week I deleted 2000 pro, put xp pro on, deleted xp pro, put 2000 pro back on, and now I am installing 2000 datacenter server to it right now. I was getting spyware problems and I thought it might make things a *bit* more secure.

I heard someone say the average XP install lasts 9 months, though I cant imagine going 9 months without doing a clean install. For some reason I just love the smell of a clean install of an OS in the morning!

PatrickMay16
November 5th, 2005, 03:29 AM
Whenever is needed. If something breaks and the quickest and most sensible way to fix it is by reinstalling the OS, then that's when it'll go. Otherwise, things are usually kept the way they are until I absolutely have to reinstall it.

Before my old computer died, I had an installation of Windows 2000 that lasted a year and a few months. Admittedly it was pretty facked out before the computer died. There were probably a few viruses and crap like that, and it wasn't so reliable, but I'm not sure if that was due to the computer itself dying or the windows installation being facked out. Either way, before the computer died, it was functional and not so bad to use.

poptones
November 5th, 2005, 03:33 AM
I'm working on a way to easily "rollback" linux when something goes wrong, but for now if I bork something in an experiment and it looks liek it's going to take two hours of googling to fix it, I just whip out the hoary CD and reboot. My "system" is all on another partition anyway, I can reload the core and be back up and running in 45 minutes.

Kvark
November 5th, 2005, 03:44 AM
I once went 3 years without reinstalling win2k. But that was with a laptop that I used only for schoolwork.

On my main computer that I actually install stuff on and use there has always been 2 or 3 reinstalls of win98/winXP per year. The problem with Windows was that stuff that used to work fine suddenly broke or slowly degraded over time. Probably either because of me messing around as root and tinkering even with the registry or because various programs felt like messing with the system.

After switching to Ubuntu it feels like once something works, it keeps working so it could go on for years without reinstall. But there is another problem instead. I love how easy it is to click away in the repos to install and try lots of random stuff. However, I am not going to spend time hunting down and uninstalling programs I long ago tried once and forgot about. And leaving all that junk there doesn't feel neat. So the easiest option is to wipe it all each time a new release is out.

mikill
November 5th, 2005, 04:26 AM
Boy do I feel lazy!
I bought a a computer in 1998 - PII 350 10G HD and Win98. I replaced that computer last year with a PIII 500 and used the same hard drive. Just this summer I bought another PIII 500 (yes I do shop garage sales, you can't beat a $10 computer) and finnally upgraded to Win98SE (free for the picking) I took my second PIII and but Hory on it (but screwed up WINE so I can't play games but will be fixing it again soon, maybe). Oh and Hory didn't load right on the PII so I put Win98 on it and gave it to my mother-in-law.

So about 6 years...

Maybe I just am Lazy - takes all kinds.;)

cstudent
November 5th, 2005, 04:28 AM
I just thought it was weird that I do a clean install of ether windows or ubuntu (I dual boot) on a weekly basis. How often does everyone else do a clean install?

I deleted ubuntu, put fedora on, deleted fedora, put ubuntu back on last week. This week I deleted 2000 pro, put xp pro on, deleted xp pro, put 2000 pro back on, and now I am installing 2000 datacenter server to it right now. I was getting spyware problems and I thought it might make things a *bit* more secure.

I heard someone say the average XP install lasts 9 months, though I cant imagine going 9 months without doing a clean install. For some reason I just love the smell of a clean install of an OS in the morning!

Dude. Build another computer. :D

My XP stayed on my Windows machine after initial install from the time XP was introduced until last Feb when I put in a new MB and processor. My Ubuntu Hoary has been in this computer I'm using since May, but I'm making plans to upgrade to Breezy with a clean install. I plan on adding a second hard drive when I do. I have another machine with XP (My wife's Dell) I purchased last Christmas which will keep the factory install until I absolutely have to re-install. I have another machine which I use as a file server, mainly for storage and backups, that has a clean install of Breezy a couple of weeks old. That will stay until Drake is release. I have a laptop I bought in August with XP, which will stay until I am forced to re-install. It is also a dual boot system since two nights ago with Breezy. That will probably stay until Drake next April. And finally, I have another machine which I use to play with. It is about to get Gentoo installed on it because I am getting ready to start a microproccesor circuits class in January which requires this. I haven't tried Gentoo yet, so this shoudl be fun. I only re-install the OS on a have to basis. I'm more in to actually using the machine as opposed to spending time setting it up. But to each his own.

Bill

xequence
November 5th, 2005, 04:29 AM
Wow, so I guess noone else is this clean install happy?

I dont know why, I just like to start over.

Oh, and when ubuntu installs something from apt/synaptic it keeps the .deb file of the installer on the hard drive. I have about 500 MB of installers there, pretty annoying. I tried doing something like that on windows so I wouldent have to search the internet for the things I download but it didnt work well. I had like 2 GB of stuff. Oh the windows 2000 datacenter server install went well. For some reason it has high system requirements compared to pro (pro needs 64 MB RAM, datacenter server 256 MB RAM) but it isnt any faster or slower. Just some cool admin things and the install takes 900 MB instead of 800 MB for pro. And you have to press CTRL + ATL + DEL to log in for some reason.


Dude. Build another computer.

I plan to when I get enough money :P I want to make a little money off a web site sometime... Ive been planning to do it for along time.

poptones
November 5th, 2005, 05:38 AM
When I was using windows 2000 I almost NEVER reinstalled. I got hacked once and it was such a pain in the butt I setup another machine with IPCOP to help protect me from the mean and evil internet. I use my desktop for software development and it was always such a huge pain in the ass to get vc++ and the other tools I use up and running I would avoid reinstallation by most any means necessary. When I was on windows, reinstalling (even if I kept all my partitions) meant at least two days of recovery period before I could even begin to be productive.

I first tried setting up another win2k box to act as my dialup gateway, but the internet connection routing sucked so terribly I bit the bullet and went looking for a linux router I could setup without a huge learning curve. So in spite of the redhats and mandrakes and all that stuff, my "gateway" into linux was a router - an embedded system.

So unlike those people who reload on a regular basis because windows is so complicated and hard to troubleshoot, I reload linux on a regular basis simply because it's so incredibly easy to get back up and running...

Samuel
November 5th, 2005, 06:05 AM
i went through a stage of reinstalling windows every 3 weeks or so, eventually after learning to maintain it properly it lasted about 2 years and didnt seem to loose any performance. i didnt run an anti virus i just did online scans weekly and i went for 2 years without getting one.

I'm sort of in the reinstalling stage with ubuntu now, but i think this installation will be a keeper, i have it set up how i like it (apart from not getting 5.1 sound) so I'm hoping this will last me until the next release where i will try a dist upgrade, something will go wrong and i will do a clean install.

raven
November 5th, 2005, 08:31 AM
winxp same installation since 2k1 works beautifull
Kubuntu Hoary same installation since 9 month works perfectly
why would I reinstall ???
all programs and customizing on sys toooooooo painfull...

Rule
November 5th, 2005, 09:09 AM
Wow, so I guess noone else is this clean install happy?

I dont know why, I just like to start over.

Oh, and when ubuntu installs something from apt/synaptic it keeps the .deb file of the installer on the hard drive. I have about 500 MB of installers there,

you can delete those in synaptic and have synaptic delete them when you close it.

open sysnaptic then click on "Settings > Prefrences > Files > then choose "Delete downloaded packages after installation" :D

doclivingston
November 5th, 2005, 09:17 AM
Windows? about once every six months.

I did a reinstall of Fedora when a new one came out, because I could never get upgrading to work. My current Ubuntu install has been dist-upgraded several times from Array 3 of Hoary to Breezy.

Sirin
November 5th, 2005, 10:35 AM
How often do you do a clean install of your OS?

Since there is absolutely NO system restore on Linux, every time something goes wrong, which averages at once every 2 weeks. :(

Windows XP got me far, this is actually my first install of Windows XP from 2002, and I haven't mucked up my system, since it has all of these easy-to-use GUI-powered tools, such as System restore, disk cleaner, etc., and I use my tactics, one of them is turning off my cable modem while not doing any internet-based tasks, so NO one can hack my system while I'm offline. I have a Motorola SurfBoard modem, so it only takes 0.294059 seconds to turn it off, and it takes absolutely the same time to turn it back on.

Linux really needs system restore, in case my system messes up (and that's really often, I tell you).

darkmatter
November 5th, 2005, 11:09 AM
Only when I need to...I like to play a lot...hacking the living hell out of my system, playing with many different configurations... (trying to develop the 'perfect install' for many years)

Thing can get quite messy over time...

cstudent
November 5th, 2005, 02:11 PM
I plan to when I get enough money :P I want to make a little money off a web site sometime... Ive been planning to do it for along time.

Cool. I'm sorta fortunate, although I have bought plenty of parts to build systems, I get a lot of used parts given to me from friends and people I help out. I keep my eyes open when I pass a yard sale for used computers too. Plus I work for a company that supplies arcade games, so there are lots of still good parts that will get scraped that I can take.

Bill

TimelessRogue
November 5th, 2005, 02:34 PM
Well, let's see ... I've had Win2kPro since the beginning (of 2kPro) on this laptop and on a me-built desktop with an occassional problem but never a reinstall.

I've also had RedHat installed on both but opted out when RH started to become too "Gates-ish" in some of their practices.

Switched to Ubuntu a while back with Hoary on this laptop ... no reinstalls, only updates/upgrades ... 'til I moved up to Beezy, which, of course, I handled as a complete reinstall rather that putting it on top of Hoary (it just seemed to be the option with the least potential pain.) Other than a minor wifi glitch ... which I solved relatively painlessly (there's another post that covers that) ... I've not had any problems that would lead to reinstalling ... neither do I anticipate any.

Other than that, my practice is to solve problems rather than start over. In other words: no reinstalls planned or practiced.

Denis
November 6th, 2005, 12:32 AM
It looks like most people here do a lot of clean system installs. I really don't get that some do a reinstall so many times. I expect a system to be stable enough to last for a few years. If I would have to install it again after a few months, I wouldn't be satisfied at all. Some appear to do an install every week? That's quite insane I think :???: Unless you really like to play around with your OS.

Long time ago I had windows ME for a few years, while everyone was complaining it was unstable. (in fact it was, but I didn't have to do a reinstall anyway...). I used Windows XP for about 3 years I think. It was still fine at that time. (I did a reinstall to sell the pc)

I'm running Ubuntu for almost 3 months now, and I hope it will last a long time. That's why it's important for me that the updates are "clean". (I'm still on Hoary btw) Well, I'll see how it ends up after the updates. In the beginning I might want to do a clean install once. But when Ubuntu becomes really mature, doing a major update shouldn't cause any problems.

I didn't know about the deb packages yet. I'll remember that. I think knowing your system is very impotant to keep it clean.

Well, whatever you do, have fun with your system ;)

majikstreet
November 6th, 2005, 12:53 AM
you can delete those in synaptic and have synaptic delete them when you close it.

open sysnaptic then click on "Settings > Prefrences > Files > then choose "Delete downloaded packages after installation" :D
or sudo apt-get clean

-Rick-
November 6th, 2005, 01:21 AM
Only if I need to.
Last time was FreeBSD, it required more space so it needed to move. Before that it was windows XP 2-3 years ago.

I can't be bothered to reinstall 5 OS'es every week ;)

xequence
November 6th, 2005, 01:49 AM
It looks like most people here do a lot of clean system installs. I really don't get that some do a reinstall so many times. I expect a system to be stable enough to last for a few years. If I would have to install it again after a few months, I wouldn't be satisfied at all. Some appear to do an install every week? That's quite insane I think :???: Unless you really like to play around with your OS.

I really dont know why I do it. Just for fun I guess... I just like having a new, fast, cleanly installed windows. And for my linux partition, I just install different distros and stuff but then I go back to ubuntu.

kvidell
November 6th, 2005, 01:52 AM
I reinstall windows on a regular basis... how regular I'm not sure, it's some number of months I think...
Linux? Eh... Unless I was switching distros or really really broke something, I'd say about once every year or so.

I keep my linux installs pretty clean even over long amounts of time with the clever use of a BSD file server and just keeping the desktop/laptop(s) clean.
- K

23meg
November 6th, 2005, 02:46 AM
I've refrained from dist-upgrading ever since Warty; I place an irrational belief and trust in clean installs. I do a lot of customization but none of it goes to waste since I document it all in great detail. It's a bit more painful than dist-upgrading but it also gives a good early opportunity to peek into the new OS.

I've kept a Windows 2000 installation for 2.5 years and it was still in good shape by the time I sold that computer. Every half decent OS can last long when well maintained.