4 ms·

Is there anyone who can explain why Windows Update is so much slower than running »apt upgrade« and similar?

by cpach 7y ago

Godel_unicode 7y ago
What is this comment supposed to mean? How are you comparing the performance of updates across OSs?
- gnomewascool 7y ago
  The relatively common (?) experience that: 1. Running `sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade` is much, much faster than explicitly going to the windows update screen, checking for updates and then updating. 2. Linux OSs are usually stuck "updating" while shutting down and restarting, far less frequently and for a far shorter time (if at all), than Windows. Obviously the comparison isn't entirely fair (though in some ways the comparison is biased against Linux, since its update also usually includes the vast majority of user-space programs), but comparing the percentage of "updating time" of two OSs (whatever the technical reasons) seems to be reasonable, to me.
  - cpach 7y ago
    Yes, this is a very good explanation.
  - Godel_unicode 7y ago
    Do you have any numbers for this? It doesn't match my experiences at all. Edit: it's been my experience that most people who think Windows sucks think this because they use it exclusively at work where their IT department has gone mad with power and turned off all the good stuff, and the network is slow.
    - gnomewascool 7y ago
      > Do you have any numbers for this? It doesn't match my experiences at all. Sorry, no, purely "anecdata", mainly based on a variety of personal and family laptops and desktop computers. There have been occasional IT department-managed update nightmares, but I don't count these.
    - cpach 7y ago
      Just for the record, I didn’t say that Windows suck :-)◊ ◊ I mean of course it does since every OS sucks, but that’s a given.
techntoke 7y ago
Because apt upgrade, or pacman -Syyu is simply extracting files and using hooks to generate a new initramfs. Windows Updates has to do a lot of operations to ensure the registry is correct, and then batch upgrades to create and remove scripts to run after restart.
rjsw 7y ago
I have wondered whether the servers are overloaded, will maybe try logging the network traffic the next time I try to update.
Arnavion 7y ago
Part of the reason is what I described in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20812142 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20812142 and its child comment.
- cpach 7y ago
  Interesting! Thank you for writing this up.

Is there anyone who can explain why Windows Update is so much slower than running »apt upgrade« and similar?

by cpach 7y ago

Is there anyone who can explain why Windows Update is so much slower than running »apt upgrade« and similar?

Godel_unicode 7y ago

What is this comment supposed to mean? How are you comparing the performance of updates across OSs?

gnomewascool 7y ago
The relatively common (?) experience that: 1. Running `sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade` is much, much faster than explicitly going to the windows update screen, checking for updates and then updating. 2. Linux OSs are usually stuck "updating" while shutting down and restarting, far less frequently and for a far shorter time (if at all), than Windows. Obviously the comparison isn't entirely fair (though in some ways the comparison is biased against Linux, since its update also usually includes the vast majority of user-space programs), but comparing the percentage of "updating time" of two OSs (whatever the technical reasons) seems to be reasonable, to me.
- cpach 7y ago
  Yes, this is a very good explanation.
- Godel_unicode 7y ago
  Do you have any numbers for this? It doesn't match my experiences at all. Edit: it's been my experience that most people who think Windows sucks think this because they use it exclusively at work where their IT department has gone mad with power and turned off all the good stuff, and the network is slow.
  - gnomewascool 7y ago
    > Do you have any numbers for this? It doesn't match my experiences at all. Sorry, no, purely "anecdata", mainly based on a variety of personal and family laptops and desktop computers. There have been occasional IT department-managed update nightmares, but I don't count these.
  - cpach 7y ago
    Just for the record, I didn’t say that Windows suck :-)◊ ◊ I mean of course it does since every OS sucks, but that’s a given.

techntoke 7y ago

Because apt upgrade, or pacman -Syyu is simply extracting files and using hooks to generate a new initramfs. Windows Updates has to do a lot of operations to ensure the registry is correct, and then batch upgrades to create and remove scripts to run after restart.

rjsw 7y ago

I have wondered whether the servers are overloaded, will maybe try logging the network traffic the next time I try to update.

Arnavion 7y ago

Part of the reason is what I described in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20812142 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20812142 and its child comment.

cpach 7y ago
Interesting! Thank you for writing this up.