Meme transcription: Anakin & Padme
[Panel 1] Anakin tries selects “Update and shut down” from the Windows start menu.
[Panel 2] Padme, labeled as “Windows”, cheerily says: ”You mean ‘Update and restart’, right?”
[Panel 3] Anakin takes an annoyed look.
[Panel 4] Padme, still cheery, says “I’ll just ‘Update and Restart’.”
On most distros you don’t need to restart to update. Mint will just put an icon on the taskbar when updates are ready, and you can even tell it to just do it in the background. No restarts or shutdown warnings.
Don’t kernel updates need a restart?
Yeah but no work has to be done during the restart, it’s just booting into the new kernel.
Usually yes, but you’ll never be forced or even nagged to restart. You could keep your computer going for months on the same kernel until you decide that it’s time to reboot, at which point your computer will boot with the new kernel.