It's a well-known fact that Windows PCs need to be shut down or restarted on a semi-regular schedule to preserve their stability and apply security updates from Microsoft. If you fail to do this, your machine could crash, and in all likelihood will shut down by itself anyway. But the same isn't always true for Linux systems. Here's why.

Why Do PCs Need to Shut Down?

If you're a Windows user, you're probably used to shutting down your machine every night, or at least on a regular basis. If you're the kind of person who forgets to shut down before dozing off, it's easy to use Task Scheduler to shut down a Windows 10 or 11 PC.

There are many reasons you might want to shut down your computer, including saving power, reducing wear and tear on the components, or protecting the device from power surges.

Another reason is that the longer a Windows computer is running, the slower it runs. Zombie processes are generated and never shut down, junk accumulates on the disk and in RAM. Restarting the computer every couple of days clears these processes, gets rid of junk files, and makes Windows a lot quicker. This isn't 100 percent necessary, and if you have some moderate skills, you can chase down zombie processes yourself.

And then there are the updates. Windows users are accustomed to being nagged about mandatory updates to the software on their machines. Eventually, Windows gets tired of waiting and will install system updates with or without the owner's consent.

When an update is applied on Windows, you will eventually be forced to restart your machine so that changes can be applied and configured. It's a time-consuming process that happens at least once per month and can be more than annoying if you're in the middle of something important.

Do You Really Need to Shut Down Linux?

htop showing an uptime of 77 days

The only real reason you actually need to shut down or restart Linux is because of the regularly issued updates and patches. The other reasons are down to personal preferences and your own skill level.

Most Linux distributions can upgrade installed packages and even the kernel itself without requiring a reboot.

Services usually need to be restarted after they've been updated or upgraded, but this can be accomplished in the terminal with a single command. To restart the Apache web server on an Ubuntu machine, for instance, you would enter:

        sudo service apache2 restart
    

With some distros also offering live kernel patching, you don't even need to reboot after a major system update. Often, Linux servers stay up for months, or even years, at a time.

You Probably Do Want to Shut Down Your Linux Machine

While there's no technical reason why you need to shut down or restart Linux, due to some of the reasons listed above, you may want to shut it down from time to time. Hardware wears out, and electricity isn't cheap. Also, if you want a lightning-quick fix for most problems, it's often the easiest way.