A bug fix bake-off
Installing bug fixes is a big part of Defensive Computing. When I recently updated devices running five different operating systems, I took the opportunity to compare how they installed their latest patches.
The tests were run on July 27th. Hardware-wise, all the devices were old, but their software was reasonably up to date, lacking only the latest round of updates. All in all, it seemed like a fair fight.
I cold booted each device and waited for it to settle down before updating the operating system. Typically a computer does some housekeeping when it first boots and/or when it first goes online. So, I let each device sit for a while. Then, on Windows and OS X, I updated Firefox to insure that the Internet connection was working well. On iOS, I waited for the app store to phone home. It initially said that 5 apps needed to be updated, but after a short delay, upped that number to 31. On Chrome OS, I just waited a few minutes.
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