this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2026
112 points (94.4% liked)

Linux Gaming

25213 readers
364 users here now

Discussions and news about gaming on the GNU/Linux family of operating systems (including the Steam Deck). Potentially a $HOME away from home for disgruntled /r/linux_gaming denizens of the redditarian demesne.

This page can be subscribed to via RSS.

Original /r/linux_gaming pengwing by uoou.

No memes/shitposts/low-effort posts, please.

Resources

Help:

Launchers/Game Library Managers:

General:

Discord:

IRC:

Matrix:

Telegram:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Every night, I put my computer to sleep. But should I be shutting it down every now and then? For example, maybe once a week or once a month?

Just curious to see this question answered from a Linux gamers' perspective.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If you're specifically asking because of memory use, there is no need. Memory management in Linux is extremely efficient, and since everything is a process, a properly killed process doesn't block reclaim of that memory as you see a lot in Windows. You may see your "free" memory as being low, but that's kind of a misnomer as you should be paying attention to claimed vs unclaimed/cached memory, which will be "recycled" into other processes that request it. If you run into memory issues on Linux or BSD, you'll know it.

That being said, if your machine isn't suspending or cleeping, then you're just wearing your components out by leaving them on 24/7, so shutting down or suspending would be good practice to extend the general lifespan of your machine.