[beagle3]

Some linux updates require a reboot for a kernel update to take effect; Many modern ones, if properly configured, can update the kernels without rebooting (e.g. Ubuntu, RedHat and Oracle all have that as a paid option for businesses, Ubuntu also free for personal or oss use).

But I've never had an issue where something wouldn't work between the end of an update and a reboot, where that does happen on Windows. Furthermore, it has happened to me that after a kernel upgrade (on a system that did require a reboot to make it take effect), I took a couple of weeks before reboot (running long simulations), in which case I was able to apply yet another kernel upgrade or two; but you only ever need one reboot to make the latest-and-greatest take effect.

On Windows, you accumulate reboots if you wait (which requires constantly rejecting the "shall I reboot now" prompts) so you may need many; and I've sometimes needed several reboots even though I didn't delay anything.

[rcxdude]

Live kernel patching is limited though: it can update most functions and some datastructures, but not all. This is great for bugfixes and security patches but can't deal with larger updates. If you're trying to keep on the latest version you need to reboot at some point.

[Reelin]

> can update the kernels without rebooting

The implementation is (IMO) really interesting from a programming perspective (https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/livepatch/livepatch.h...).