I don’t use Microsoft Windows much. But when I do use it, the thing that is most noticeable is the enormous security and features updates that take forever to update. Literally, it took my laptop 25 minutes of unusable time complete with multiple reboots to get working the other day, meaning I would have missed my Zoom meeting if not for my phone.

In Linux, all updates can be done in the background using apt-get or a similar package manager. Linux doesn’t require reboots during updates, nowadays even kernels can in many cases be hot swapped. Most other software and libraries can be updated in the background. Yes, every two years there are big distribution updates for Ubuntu which often require a single reboot to load the latest kernel and features but it’s not usually mandated right away, and the reboot is just an ordinary reboot with no delays.

The windows update process really should be faster, requiring less files be downloaded for patching bugs and should occur in the background. The windows infrastructure should be redesigned to allow libraries to be updated behind the scenes without reboots and if a library has breaking changes, it should only require you to restart that app. Likewise, windows should tell you exactly what is updating during system updates, not keeping you in the dark – maybe hide the real technical information but at least give you a much better idea what is happening in the background (patching the security bug that could xxxx) along with estimated time, percent done and progress.