Daley Ponderings

Everyone always says how user-friendly Windows is, and as I sit here waiting for my Windows computer to endlessly update itself, I am struck by how much harder it is to update my Windows laptop than all of my Linux (Debian) servers put together.
On Debian: Type "aptitude", "u" (for get latest updates). Check list to see if I want to install all of them; there aren't any interesting bug fixes, but some new features, and minor bugs. "g" (for go). Check configuration files for correct updates and check them into my source control in case I need to restore anything.

On Windows: Wonder why my computer is suddenly running so slow after installing Word Viewer.   Check the task manager as see that the windows update utility is using a hundred megs of RAM, and the associated service is also using a hundred megs of RAM.  Since my machine only has 256MB, now I know why it is running so slow.  Note that there isn't a windows update icon on the task try, but check the windows update log, and see that indeed, it is downloading various updates (I set it to download automatically, and then let me review them before installing).  The computer is unusable, so wait around for the downloads to finish.  About halfway through the download, the task tray icon appears.  Once the updates are downloaded, install the 7 updates for Word Viewer, all of which say, "this update fixes a bug that allows random people to access your computer".  After it finishes (at least it didn't make me reboot like usual), notice that my computer is still running slowly, so back to the task manager - windows updates are still doing something, though only taking up a combind 80 MB of memory.  Run Microsoft Update manually from the start bar to see if there is something else to download.  Strangely enough, Microsoft Update tells me I need to install Microsoft Update to continue, which of course, needs to download the Genuine Advantage tool for the 57th time.  Wait around for that to complete, and then can check for updates.  There aren't any required/high priority ones (I update all the time), but there are some optional software ones, like .NET, which various programs require, so I download those too.  A half hour later, still not completed, and my computer is barely usable this entire time.

Hrm, still waiting for the Windows Updates to install, so just for fun, I'll go update my servers while I am waiting. 45 seconds to download the update list.  A couple critical fixes, and since this machine is currently being used by lots of people, I'll hold off on updating the web server and the sasl login.  But, I'll install the other 40 updates now (I run the "testing" version, so there are lots of regular updates).  Note, that none of these updates say anything like, "this update protects you from the bug where if you open a random file it could potentially erase your entire hard disk".  5 minutes later, the system is completely updated.  Still waiting for the Microsoft updates to finish, so I'll go ahead and update the web server and sasl login, while they are being used, since the downtime will probably be so small, that no one will notice.

... Update is done, turns out apache and sasl both had somewhat significant upgrades.  Due to a previous bug in apache, there was about 10 seconds of downtime, but the good news is that in this release, that bug has been fixed, so I'll stop having the couple seconds of downtime during upgrades.

Hrm.  Microsoft Update is still going...