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Windows update Vs Ubuntu Update

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Josh:
A few months ago, Steve Ballmer publicly noted that Windows Vista was “a work in progress.” That inspired a predictable outpouring of Vista-bashing. After all, look how many updates Windows Vista has had since it was first released. Obviously, it was a disaster, or there would have been no need for that many updates, right? Why couldn’t Microsoft get it right the first time?

The reality? All modern operating systems used as mainstream business and consumer platforms are “works in progress” and require frequent updates to fix bugs and resolve security issues (and occasionally to add features). Many of those bugs and security issues don’t surface until the code gets deployed widely, and even then it sometimes takes detective work to figure out where the actual problem is. Presumably, the big issues get worked out within a few months, and the pace of updates drops off (but not to zero).
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More at Source.

zridling:
Ed Bott running Linux. Hell froze over again? He should run his Ubuntu VM more often. Not sure why he's rebooting all the time, but I haven't had to reboot in three months of daily use.

The point Ed should have made is that updating the OS more frequently is a good thing. Vista is quite solid with SP1. Too bad that wasn't what Microsoft sold to the consumer in January 2007. That next 15 months was not fun!  ;D

Josh:
Actually, the point I see from this story is that while people complain about Vista and XP requiring "so many updates", linux requires just as many on a default install. The only difference is linux includes hundreds of smaller applications which can cause security problems while windows only includes a handful of larger applications.

Edvard:
Yes, I couldn't imagine the horror of one service pack not only updating my OS, but also my Xplorer2, irfanview, FARR, Litestep, PDFCreator, FileZilla, CCleaner, Autohotkey, SnicoEdit, SciTe, MagicISO, Pixia, Locate32, MobyDock, ImageMagick, Ghostscript, WinRoll, etc, ad nauseum (just to name a few...).

 >:(

Lashiec:
Both Windows and Linux require tons of updates on a monthly basis, either for the operating system, or for the software you use. In the case of Linux, I guess things could be improved if you tailor the distro to your needs.

It would be nice if there was a way to update everything from Windows Update, but in that case, there should be a way to cleanly uninstall any piece of software, since some apps leave many things behind. Mac OS X is a different thing, because its updates are not nearly as frequent, and so, they're fairly bigger, but they also improve things and introduce minor new features, so in a way they can be considered Service Packs.

Also, one thing it's usually forgotten, it's that Windows Update rarely includes hotfixes, the sole reason XP was not perfect for me until SP3.

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