I've blogged about this before but with the news of Apple's upcoming 10.4.9 release, it reminded me again of the lame way Microsoft handles updates. Am I the only one that thinks regularly scheduled (think every 2-3 months) updates that include all hotfixes for that period along with all application updates should be bundled into a numbered update?
No more long lists of KB# patches in our Add/Remove program list. Want to know if a particular patch has been applied? Simply check the version of the OS. Mac users can simply tell each other what version of the system they are running. 10.4.2 versus 10.4.5. Windows users would have to say 'Oh, I'm running Vista with patches installed for KBxxxx and KByyyyy and KBzzzzz and the Broadcom update of 1/4/07. And you?'
I'm on vacation so enough ranting.
I suspect that this has a lot to do with the way that Microsoft's products penetrate corporate organizations -- it's much easier to distribute a "patch" but most organizations are more conservative about adopting a "new version" and have a big, slow bureaucracy associated with it. In a world in which some "patches" that Microsoft puts out include things like stronger DRM and "genuine advantage" cruft, this is probably the correct thing for these organizations to be doing.
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