Guilty of the Same "Crimes"

Ed Bott just wrote a wonderful post about his experience with OS updates.

It turns out that Linux updates are almost exactly the same as Windows updates. Modern operating systems apparently have similar behavior. Also, the skill is blue.

A few key points:

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).

Well, duh.

Every time I write about Windows Update I invariably get complaints from people about how how annoying it is to have to reboot after Windows updates and how Linux almost never requires a reboot.

But wait! Just above that there was a picture of a dialog box indicating the need for a reboot! And below that quote, there was this a little further on:

When the update was complete, I got another “Restart Required” message.

Turns out that modern operating systems not running a micro-kernel (read: almost none) require a reboot from time to time (that or a lot of hackery that is only starting to happen).

Of course, then this happened:

Oh, and each time I used the Update Manager the screen background dimmed and I had to provide an administrator’s password in this dialog box:

[picture omitted from quote]

Looks an awful lot like a UAC prompt in Windows Vista, doesn’t it?

Modern operating systems ask for credentials in order to elevate rights! Why do people get so annoyed at UAC when its just the same thing in every other OS? Maybe some people have never used Linux?

Or maybe too many users (and all too often "tech" bloggers) have been running as administrator and have grown complacent?

I find it very interesting that people are annoyed with the exact same behavior that is found in any other operating system.

Last point Bott made, and I think the most profound:

In short, the “work in progress” has actually produced results.

Damn straight. Every OS is a "work in progress" and every modern OS has produced strong results.

As with Bott, I'm not attacking Linux or any other OS here, just those that attack Microsoft for doing something really well (Windows Update) to the point where others emulate it or coming up to speed with everyone else (in the case of UAC).

If anyone is going to attack Microsoft for something like Windows Update, then don't attack it for doing the same thing.

If anyone is going to attack Microsoft on something like UAC, it should be on why they didn't do it sooner.