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Android has an interesting model here : IIRC on newer versions of the OS, updates are applied on a separate partition without interrupting you. I don't know if

Android has an interesting model here : IIRC on newer versions of the OS, updates are applied on a separate partition without interrupting you. I don't know if it causes performance loss during that time, so far it has been seemless for me but I don't have updates everyday either .. Only when the update completes will the OS asks you to reboot so it can start from that new version. Sure it uses a ton of storage to do things this way, but it is very secure and pleasant to use.

amaccuish 8y ago
That started with Chrome OS
- dijit 8y ago
  If we’re going to assign praise to the invention then I remember seeing it as part of FreeNAS nearly a decade ago. (Interestingly they recently deprecated this method of updating.) And JunOS (the juniper network appliance operating system based on freebsd.) has had this since version 10.4 which was released in 2010.
  - amaccuish 8y ago
    I guess I was meaning in the context of Google, but interesting :)
  - pinceau 8y ago
    I believe this feature was first implemented on the Solaris OS.
canhascodez 8y ago
Microsoft's approach to updates has always been a criminal waste of their users resources, particularly their time.
- collyw 8y ago
  True. I have had Windows machines from work which I install Linux on as a dual boot. I need to use Windows maybe two or three times a year, and it can take hours for software updates to install when I do log in.
  - tatersolid 8y ago
    apt-get dist-upgrade takes several hours on my Linux partition, which I also boot just a few times per year. Ubuntu also completely blows itself up into an unbootable state at least once a year after updates. Windows Update and testing suck, but Linux package management and upgrading suck just as badly. Systemd upgrade bugs seem to cause the most un-bootable systems in my experience, with alarming frequency, even on LTS servers that see little churn.
    - pas 8y ago
      sorry to hear that, I did the last 4-5 ubuntu updates on a dual boot (win + ununtu) box, and it went smooth most of the time. but it takes about an hour. if apt finished it always rebooted. (nvidia drivers requres some manual work initially, but it was basically setting up the right repository and installing newer packages from time to time) and on servers (20+ VMs and a few hypervisors, some LTS some not) I had even fewer problems. for me things got especially smooth sailing after ubuntu switched to systemd.
arthurfm 8y ago
> on newer versions of the OS, updates are applied on a separate partition without interrupting you The seamless updates feature originally came from Chrome OS. It's easily one of the best features of that OS. https://www.xda-developers.com/how-a-b-partitions-and-seamless-updates-affect-custom-development-on-xda/ https://www.xda-developers.com/how-a-b-partitions-and-seamle... Fun fact: The Android update_engine which handles seamless updates is basically ripped straight from Chrome OS. Only recently were strings containing "Chrome OS" removed from update_engine’s log to avoid confusion for anyone who happens to check logcat. I have often wondered if Microsoft could use this type of system for Windows 10? Not only would it make the update process more reliable, but faster too (especially when it comes to feature updates). The other thing Microsoft should sort out is WSUS. It is such a flaky system!
- WorldMaker 8y ago
  > I have often wondered if Microsoft could use this type of system for Windows 10? Not only would it make the update process more reliable, but faster too (especially when it comes to feature updates). From what I understand this isn't far from what Windows 10 does? Windows doesn't use a separate physical partition because it can't trust any specific OEM or user to follow a specific partition scheme, so it uses something more of a "virtual" overlay in NTFS for big Windows changes, based on how I understand it. It's something like a partition scheme in that it virtualizes entire directories (like C:\Windows) and then swaps them. For dumb backwards compatibility reasons, Windows can't just assume that it can just outright swap one C:\Windows directory for another one, so supposedly a lot of the time in major updates is stuff like inventorying directories like C:\Windows for non-Windows stuff and copying it across to the new pseudo-partition before the swap.

amaccuish 8y ago

That started with Chrome OS

dijit 8y ago
If we’re going to assign praise to the invention then I remember seeing it as part of FreeNAS nearly a decade ago. (Interestingly they recently deprecated this method of updating.) And JunOS (the juniper network appliance operating system based on freebsd.) has had this since version 10.4 which was released in 2010.
- amaccuish 8y ago
  I guess I was meaning in the context of Google, but interesting :)
- pinceau 8y ago
  I believe this feature was first implemented on the Solaris OS.

canhascodez 8y ago

Microsoft's approach to updates has always been a criminal waste of their users resources, particularly their time.

collyw 8y ago
True. I have had Windows machines from work which I install Linux on as a dual boot. I need to use Windows maybe two or three times a year, and it can take hours for software updates to install when I do log in.
- tatersolid 8y ago
  apt-get dist-upgrade takes several hours on my Linux partition, which I also boot just a few times per year. Ubuntu also completely blows itself up into an unbootable state at least once a year after updates. Windows Update and testing suck, but Linux package management and upgrading suck just as badly. Systemd upgrade bugs seem to cause the most un-bootable systems in my experience, with alarming frequency, even on LTS servers that see little churn.
  - pas 8y ago
    sorry to hear that, I did the last 4-5 ubuntu updates on a dual boot (win + ununtu) box, and it went smooth most of the time. but it takes about an hour. if apt finished it always rebooted. (nvidia drivers requres some manual work initially, but it was basically setting up the right repository and installing newer packages from time to time) and on servers (20+ VMs and a few hypervisors, some LTS some not) I had even fewer problems. for me things got especially smooth sailing after ubuntu switched to systemd.

arthurfm 8y ago

> on newer versions of the OS, updates are applied on a separate partition without interrupting you The seamless updates feature originally came from Chrome OS. It's easily one of the best features of that OS. https://www.xda-developers.com/how-a-b-partitions-and-seamless-updates-affect-custom-development-on-xda/ https://www.xda-developers.com/how-a-b-partitions-and-seamle... Fun fact: The Android update_engine which handles seamless updates is basically ripped straight from Chrome OS. Only recently were strings containing "Chrome OS" removed from update_engine’s log to avoid confusion for anyone who happens to check logcat. I have often wondered if Microsoft could use this type of system for Windows 10? Not only would it make the update process more reliable, but faster too (especially when it comes to feature updates). The other thing Microsoft should sort out is WSUS. It is such a flaky system!

WorldMaker 8y ago
> I have often wondered if Microsoft could use this type of system for Windows 10? Not only would it make the update process more reliable, but faster too (especially when it comes to feature updates). From what I understand this isn't far from what Windows 10 does? Windows doesn't use a separate physical partition because it can't trust any specific OEM or user to follow a specific partition scheme, so it uses something more of a "virtual" overlay in NTFS for big Windows changes, based on how I understand it. It's something like a partition scheme in that it virtualizes entire directories (like C:\Windows) and then swaps them. For dumb backwards compatibility reasons, Windows can't just assume that it can just outright swap one C:\Windows directory for another one, so supposedly a lot of the time in major updates is stuff like inventorying directories like C:\Windows for non-Windows stuff and copying it across to the new pseudo-partition before the swap.