Kryton Kryngle said:Am I the only person who reboots his computer and gets it back pretty much in the same condition it was in before the reboot?
"Reboot" is, technically, a computer term. Its usage in film-making terms is pure slang, of course. But what does a "reboot" do for a computer?
A reboot does NOT mean that you wipe away everything that's been installed on your computer. That's called a "reload" or a "reinstall." In that case, you go back to the basics and throw away everything you've built up over time (you can "reinstall" much of that, but you have to rebuild it all, piece by piece).
A reboot DOES, however, allow you to restart processes, in the case that something has gone horribly wrong, and get everything working in (theoretically) the right relationship.
You don't lose your history, nor do you lose your data, nor do you lose your applications.
Basically, in computer terms, a reboot is done RIGHT AFTER a horrible mistake or error, to allow you to correct that individual horrible error. It's also done for basic housekeeping, to AVOID an error which is likely coming shortly.
Now, in common usage in the "BSG/Trek/etc" conversations, the terms "reboot," "reimagining" and so forth are used largely interchangeably. However, if you wanted to use a computer term in the most accurate sense, what's meant when these terms are thrown about is most closely related to a reformatting followed by a reinstallation. (Well, really, in the case of nuBSG, its not even THAT close... it's more like tossing out your old PC and replacing it with a Mac, but calling it the same computer.

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