A research group at CSAIL just contacted TIG to see about getting some help upgrading their group server, which was running CSAIL Debian. I logged in to have a look and noted the following:

 09:26:40 up 1139 days, 15:28,  3 users,  load average: 1.08, 0.83, 0.54

The machine hadn't been rebooted since early July, 2006, and was still running Debian 3.1 (sarge), close to a year and a half after support for sarge was terminated upstream and by TIG. The reliability is certainly something to be appreciated, but I'm always concerned when I see machines in this state that haven't had much attention from professional sysadmins.

The requested upgrade to lenny, with an intermediate stop in etch, is under way. I'll feel guilty typing reboot when the time comes, though.