Did You Upgrade Your OS?

[Brian Stoppee]

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=90748...

[Brian Stoppee]

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.

[Chuck Uebele]

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.

[Ussnorway]

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]

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 Stoppee]

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.

[Brad Lawryk]

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.