Continue using Fedora without rebooting

As a former Windows user, I almost always had to restart my computer as soon as an update was installed - often in the middle of something important. It's not exactly the dream when you're working, recording a video, or have a bunch of terminal windows full of running processes.

This is something I really appreciate about Linux, the vast majority of package updates require no reboot at all. You can keep working, shut down when it's convenient, and forget the update even happened. However, that doesn't mean reboots are completely passé - sometimes components close to the kernel are changed (e.g. a new kernel or an upgraded systemd library) and a reboot might be wise to keep everything running as stable as possible.

How do you know when a reboot is needed?

If you are running Fedora as distro, this is what you type in your terminal after running an update, sudo dnf update:

sudo dnf needs-restarting -r

-r flag stands for reboothint. The program checks which processes are still running old versions of libraries or kernel modules and tells you whether a reboot is recommended. If you don't get any output, it means the system is happy - you can continue working. If instead you get a line like:

Core libraries or services have been updated since boot. Reboot is required for the update to take effect.

...well, then it's at least worth considering restarting the computer, when you have the time and inclination. Rebooting with Linux is usually super fast.