Inspiring

Answered

Did You Upgrade Your OS?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
January 21, 2018
11 replies
3714 views

Recent security concerns make us think that everyone is rushing to get the latest operating system (OS) upgrade, but that’s hardly the case. That surprised us. Between Apple and Microsoft, we sometimes see new versions released as fast as every week or two, when security issues exist.

There was a time when Mac owners rushed out and adopted the latest OS. By year’s end, StatCounter was reporting that worldwide, 26.42% of Mac users adopted the High Sierra (10.13) and 29.61% were back on the previous version, Sierra (10.12), with 20.64% on El Capitan (10.11). That tells us that 76.67% of the Macs in the world, according to StatCounter, have bought into an OS update since September 2015.

But, that’s the whole wide world. How about North America? Here on Apple’s home turf, it’s actually a little less: 75.94% with quite a few less for High Sierra: 23.15%.

Okay. That’s Mac. How about Windows 10? That was released a few weeks before macOS El Capitan, in 2015. Worldwide, by year’s end, 41.69% of Windows users made the jump to 10, with 41.89% still on Windows 7, which was initially released in 2009 and mainstream support for 7 stopped 3 years ago, last week.

North Americans are keeping up with Windows 10 a little better than the rest of the world. Here on Microsoft HQ’s continent, 48.13% have move to version 10.

So, what does all of this mean? The updates are free. Are some users lazy?

Well, that’s not always the case. Though we’re not sure why some users choose not to upgrade, we know some people who feel a new OS could be buggy. And, yes, in the enterprise world, big corporations and government agencies do testing before they upgrade. In other cases, the end user’s hardware has some age and cannot be updated.

Then, many inexpensive PCs do not ship with Windows 10. So, new computers ship with an old OS, which might not upgrade. (Sounds obscene, huh?)

Then, there’s always the theft of intellectual property. There are places in the world which are not concerned about enforcing intellectual property laws, so computers are sold with a stolen OS. (Definitely obscene.) In those cases, if the user goes to update their operating system, the update cannot happen. You get what you pay for (or don’t pay for).

Our advise? Be smart. Be safe. Keep your OS up to date:

https://www.apple.com/macos/high-sierra/

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/b/windows?invsrc=search&cl_vend=google&cl_ch=sem&cl_camp=907489892&cl_adg=50890631932&cl_crtv=214422983182&cl_kw=windows%2010&cl_pub=google.com&cl_place=&cl_dvt=c&cl_pos=1t2&cl_mt=e&cl_gtid=aud-341489308769:kwd-297131559738&cl_pltr=&cl_dim0=WmUCaAAABV40jKxB:20180121211312:s&OCID=AID620866_SEM_WmUCaAAABV40jKxB:20180121211312:s&s_kwcid=AL!4249!3!214422983182!e!!g!!windows%2010&ef_id=WmUCaAAABV40jKxB:20180121211312:s

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Brian Stoppee

I don't really blame either side when it comes to things breaking like this.

The OS vendor has every right to release new features, and while it would be nice they surely can't test all software.

The software vendors often have to react, which is unfortunate but understandable.

However, where they could improve in many cases is timeliness.

The Captivate example is perfect - why is this still a 'hot fix' and not an official update?

Meh

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Erik+Lord wrote
I don't really blame either side when it comes to things breaking like this.

We don't either, Erik, mainly because we have no idea who to blame.

In the early Mac days (1985 to 1993) Janet & I had a regular parade of studio owners coming through our studio asking a plethora of technical questions. We'd frequently hear, "We got the upgrade to ___ (insert name of Adobe app) ____ and now the ___ (insert name of feature) ____ won't work." Better than 90% of the time they had a 3rd party plug-in which needed to be updated but no update had been made available.

The point is that the end user launched a new version of an Adobe app, something didn't work, it's Adobe's fault.

If we told people to disable a favorite filter or how type was displayed, we had the wrong answer.

Brad Lawryk

Legend

I always keep my Macs up to date and have yet to experience any issues at all. That I can't say for Adobe software. DW in particular.

Ussnorway7605025

Legend

There is two parts to Microsoft update service; the updates and the service that controls the updates.

When someone brings the new windows 10 home the very first thing it does on getting a network is goto Microsoft to download | install the latest version of the update service, once done it restarts your system… got a deadline, monitoring a heart or tracking inter ballistic missiles = tuff titties

The user is not asked or given an option to save before this restart

Never do system critical things on a new windows 10 (like new firmware) or this restart can do irreversible damage

D Fosse

Community Expert

There's a difference between the Home and Pro editions.

With the Win 10 Pro edition you can hold off all updates for many weeks if you're in the middle of something. And it never restarts until you let it - this can also be set at a predetermined time. You always have time to save. I've used Win 10 Pro for about a half year now and find the whole update regime very streamlined and easy to deal with.

The Home edition pretty much updates on its own, although you always get ample advance warning before any restart. It doesn't suddenly pull the rug from under you.

Brian StoppeeAuthor

Inspiring

https://forums.adobe.com/people/D+Fosse wrote
There's a difference between the Home and Pro editions.

Thank you, "D."

It's important to point out enterprise configuration varies from the home version which the consumer encounters.

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

I normally do the same thing as Nancy, as if my system is running fine, I don't want to mess it up with some new OS. First time I did update my OS, at the recommendation of someone from Adobe, I was not able to use one of my costly programs and had to update it. Not a huge deal, but It was money that I didn't really have to spend. I have updated now to Win 10 due to wanting to keep abreast of things working with Adobe products, and Win 10 kind of takes over updating. One of those updates messed up my profile on both my computers so that I couldn't use the keyboards. I did find a way around this by opening the settings panel and opening the onscreen keyboard, the closing it. Real PIA! after a few more upgrades, that issue passed, and I didn't have to do that anymore.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

As far as I'm concerned, there is no upside to upgrading OSs until I buy a new machine. That goes for my tablet, phone, laptop and desktops. Back in the day, my Windows machines were all optimized for the OS they came with. And attempts at upgrades were about as pleasant as a 3 hour root canal so I stopped doing it. Unless there is a very compelling reason not to, I keep the same OS for the life of my machine.

That said however, I maintain my OSs with the latest updates and security patches. One would have to be stupid not to. But that's a far cry from jumping on the latest OS the week it releases and then crying crocodile tears because it broke your software. I don't know why people do it. But that's their cross to bear.

Nancy

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Brian StoppeeAuthor

Inspiring

That said however, I maintain my OSs with the latest updates and security patches. One would have to be stupid not to.

Thank you, Nancy-

We could never tell someone, "DON'T get your security updates." Any hardship the end user would suffer would feel like it was riding on our shoulders.

Erik Lord

Inspiring

Publishing responsive projects results in non-working...projects. It seems related to the playback bar/skins.

There is a hot fix Adobe has released, but it's not 'official' and folks have to post the problem and hope someone replies with the link (or, of course, they could search ).

If you search for Adobe Captivate High Sierra, you'll see the volume of posted concerns.

Since the hot fix has been available since...September (?) I'm not sure why there's still not yet an official update.

At any rate, to the topic and CP aside, this is certainly one reason I do not install major updates promptly.

Brian StoppeeAuthor

Inspiring

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Erik+Lord wrote
Publishing responsive projects results in non-working...projects. It seems related to the playback bar/skins.

Things like this can fascinating issues. It's not always easy for the end user to know the source of the problem.

In this case, the user updated their OS and now an Adobe app has a problem.

Adobe is very involved in developing for Apple and Microsoft OS. So, when a new OS is released is Adobe and all the other developers ready with fully tested new versions of their apps?

All the end users know is that something doesn't work. But, did Apple break the ability for the app to function or did Adobe fail to make the required changes to the app so it works with the latest OS?

By way of example, there was a time when Apple announced that option + command + d would hide or reveal the Mac's dock. Photoshop had that key combination for something (I forget what) and it took a little while for the Photoshop team to assign that functionality to a new keyboard short cut combination.

Erik Lord

Inspiring

I don't really blame either side when it comes to things breaking like this.

The OS vendor has every right to release new features, and while it would be nice they surely can't test all software.

The software vendors often have to react, which is unfortunate but understandable.

However, where they could improve in many cases is timeliness.

The Captivate example is perfect - why is this still a 'hot fix' and not an official update?

Meh

Erik Lord

Inspiring

Adobe Captivate is not one of Adobe's Big Products, it seems.

And it still doesn't work properly on High Sierra.

There are no patches listed on the CP patch site for 2017.

Brian StoppeeAuthor

Inspiring

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Erik+Lord wrote
Adobe Captivate is not one of Adobe's Big Products, it seems.
And it still doesn't work properly on High Sierra.
There are no patches listed on the CP patch site for 2017.

There had been some discussion about Captivate being added to CC but that may not have been the fit that Adobe was looking for. (We get that.)

What about it doesn't work with High Sierra?

D Fosse

Community Expert

Microsoft's policies are very clear and well published. Windows 7 receives full security support and updates for every threat (including meltdown or whatever they were called). They also publish a time horizon for such support (can't recall what it is for Win7).

Windows Vista is dropped. No more updates, and you're on your own. That was also published well in advance.

The problem with Apple is their (seemingly deliberate) lack of backwards compatibility. They keep changing the rules. People can't update the OS, because their trusted software stops working if they do. This is much less of a problem on Windows, where you can basically run anything on any OS version. I still have a program from 2006 running under Win 10 - not a critical one, but it works.

Brian StoppeeAuthor

Inspiring

https://forums.adobe.com/people/D+Fosse wrote
Microsoft's policies are very clear and well published. Windows 7 receives full security support and updates for every threat (including meltdown or whatever they were called). They also publish a time horizon for such support (can't recall what it is for Win7).

Thank you. You are 100% correct.

What Microsoft calls "Mainstream Support" is over but those big enterprise contract continue into 2020 (I think… something like that).

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Like Adobe, Apple sends updates for supported OSs and software, but not for unsupported (older) OSs and software.

Unlike Microsoft, Apple has never updated an old OS not supported against major new dangers (ransomwares…).

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Brian StoppeeAuthor

Inspiring

JR_Boulay wrote
Like Adobe, Apple sends updates for supported OSs and software, but not for unsupported (older) OSs and software.
Unlike Microsoft, Apple has never updated an old OS not supported against major new dangers (ransomwares…).

We have some iOS devices which Apple no longer supports (and we need to replace and gift to kids we love).

There was some Windows 10 issue (I forget what it was) which the original Windows 10 adopters had to upgrade to the new version to get the security advantages. It made sense that there were layers upon layers of updates which Microsoft couldn't successfully drill down to and fix.

So, are you saying that Apple is offering security updates to El Capitan or do you have to at least go to Sierra to get those?

JR Boulay

Community Expert

I upgrade as little as I can, usually when it's required by a newer version of an Adobe software.
I used Mavericks until the release of CC 2018, which forced me to install El Capitan.

Why ? Because I do not like to see my computer slow down…

On the other hand, I always do the security updates.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Brian StoppeeAuthor

Inspiring

JR_Boulay wrote
I used Mavericks until the release of CC 2018, which forced me to install El Capitan.
On the other hand, I always do the security updates.

We included El Capitan (10.11) in our upgrade research since it was 1.) the same age as Windows 10 and 2.) some computer hardware cannot upgrade to Sierra or High Sierra. That probably has something to do with why around 20% of Macs are still running 10.11.

What we did not learn is if Apple is applying the security updates to that OS. Is Apple still sending you new security patches, JR?

Ussnorway7605025

Legend

I'm not looking to dig up dirt, the examples are people that didn't upgrade kept their systems running well (or better) than the people that allowed upgrades... Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Samsung are large companies that work on volume profit margins

Great new products at affordable prices but limited testing...

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded