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by tobias3 1699 days ago
On Windows an admin can selectivly apply individual updates, which isn't possible on macOS, I think. The core algorithm that calculates the dependencies is horribly slow. They are working around that with update rollups and cumulative updates since Windows 10. There are multiple layers of snapshotting going on during updates (VSS + Transactional NTFS).

Then for example "Update telemetry" scans all applications on the system and only gives you the option to upgrade to Windows 11 if it doesn't find anything incompatible. On Apple you just get the option to upgrade and stuff just stops working afterwards.
2 comments
WesolyKubeczek 1699 days ago
> On Apple you just get the option to upgrade and stuff just stops working afterwards.

Granted, they host an "incompatible apps list" which their installers are bundled with + download updates if they can. I have no idea what it's for and what it's doing, never found a thing on my systems.

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technion 1699 days ago
Microsoft's done away with "individual updates". The current update for Windows 10 is "October 12, 2021 Update" and aside from a few exceptions such as CPU microcode updates, it bundles every previous update.
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azinman2 1699 days ago
Which certainly is easier to coordinate as a company. Part of the reason Apple does entire OS patches as that it allows every aspect of the system to have a consistent view of each other part, so API (private or public) are all in sync between all the apps and components. It also means full QA passes are for a consistent set of versions as unexpected bugs can impact far away parts.
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