A popup window that one sees often after installing software or changing settings on a Microsoft Windows system. The inference is that in order to assimilate the change, the system needs to be reconfigured at the kernel level, which requires a reboot.

As somewhat of a Unix zealot I fail to see why installing a software package or changing the TCP/IP settings should neccesitate the reboot of the system.

It is possible to install software onto a Solaris system using pkgadd without ever having to reboot the machine. Indeed if every utility I installed onto a production system required a scheduled outage, I'd be hung, drawn and quartered.