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Every time I update Windows, or even restart my windows laptop I hope that it'll still work afterwards. Updating has previously killed my dedicated graphics ca

• izacus 12y ago
  On the other hand, updating my Mac to Yosemite turned it into a slow stuttering mess - WindowServer memory leak forced me to reboot the Mac about every two hours or so or watch my desktop at < 1fps. While Windows does have problems, latest Apple software is mostly worse bug and update-wise.
  • reustle 12y ago
    These kinds of issues are why I always suggest people do fresh installs of operating systems, and not upgrades.
    • calgoo 12y ago
      I get similar memory leaks with WindowServer on a brand new macbook pro. The damn process is eating 4gb of ram sometimes...
    • thesagan 12y ago
      I did a fresh install from a seemingly healthy, semi-recent MBP and Yosemite's WindowServer seemed to begin a slow strangulation on my machine. Solved it by buying a top-of-the-line machine, which I'm sure Apple is loving.
      • jawngee 12y ago
        Gotta be a hardware issue of some variety. I'm running Yosemite on a MBPro Retina mid-2012 with zero issues at all.
        • thesagan 12y ago
          Hmmmm, possibly my slow-as-could-be hard drive. The SSD in my newer machine really does make a HUGE difference, to speak obviously ;) I have the feeling my old machine is using a bit of VRAM when WindowServer starts getting too heavy.
      • Flow 12y ago
        I discovered a weird interaction between f.lux and fullscreen gaming. They seemed to fight about which gamma etc to use. It was nothing you could see, and other than a jerky in-game mouse you did not notice it. And after an hour of playing, dying cmd+tabbing out to Safari to surf while waiting for respawn, WindowServer core dumped, logging out all users in an instant. This is fixed in 10.10.3. The jerky mouse pointer problem still remains. I don't use f.lux anymore.
    • collyw 12y ago
      I used to do that, then I released how many pieces of software I have installed, and tweaked and adjusted to my preferences. Usually there is little benefit to an upgrade so I just leave as is (or use a rolling release Linux distro).
  • zmb_ 12y ago
    Updating my iMac to Yosemite fried the graphics card. It seems Apple is putting form way ahead of function, and as a result stuffing too hot components into too small space (the same iMac has previously fried the screen and the HDD to death).
    • TeMPOraL 12y ago
      This comment just made me realize why most computers sold today wouldn't work in vacuum of space. Even if we shielded it from radiation, they'd just fry to death.
    • marincounty 12y ago
      Thanks! I was just thinking I might take a chance, but at this point I'm actually thinking about reinstalling what came with the machine. These new operating systems are literally making me angry.
    • thesagan 12y ago
      And way back in time, Apple had even factory-disabled my second NVIDIA card on my MBP because it had created heating issues in tests. So, I installed gfx, or something, to get it working. And then, predictably, major major heating issues. And it was easily solved! Apparently Apple (the rumor is Jobs ordered this, but who knows) didn't want the fans spinning too fast, which caused noise. So they governed the speed on those, too. Solved with SMC Fan Control. I wasn't too happy about being somewhat deceived by their specs for my equipment, even if they thought their intentions were "good".
    • emodendroket 12y ago
      Yeah, but they've been doing that for years. Remember all the people burning themselves with Macbooks?
• sz4kerto 12y ago
  > Every time I update Windows, or even restart my windows laptop I hope that it'll still work afterwards. That's strange. I'm now sitting in front of a Windows box that had W7 installed on it 3 years ago. I've upgraded to W8, then swapped the SSD in it (restored to the new SSD from image), resized the system partition many times (it's a Windows-Linux dual boot box), then upgraded to W8.1, then Windows 10. Oh, this is the 3rd GPU in the machine. I have never, ever had any problems with Windows itself throughout the 3 years. (I had problems with Linux though.) I have an EUR 2500 Macbook Pro as well from 2013, and the Windows box has always been more responsive/usable. Anecdotal, I know.
  • jshap70 12y ago
    Just a heads up, you're probably going to have issues trying to go from the Windows 10 tech. preview to the actual release.
    • sz4kerto 12y ago
      We'll see. MS claims I won't (http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/windows-technical-preview-users-should-be-able-upgrade-rtm-version-windows-10 http://winsupersite.com/windows-10/windows-technical-preview...). However, now in 2015 I can set up a Windows box in an hour or so thanks to Chocolatey (and to the coming OneGet). (I have actually upgraded to 8.1 CTP I think, then continued all the way to 10)
  • Rapzid 12y ago
    I use linux at work and run Windows 7 in a VM. It's domain joined and my company pushes updates to it seemingly many times a month. This rears it head more often than not when I'm going home for the day.. Sometimes I can't be bothered waiting for updates to install so I throw caution to the wind and power the VM off when it says not to... Still ticking! I run the opposite on my home PC, Windows host and linux guest. Been through multiple video cards and even an intel to amd switch. Also still running like a champ. Anecdata :)
    • weavie 12y ago
• stevoo 12y ago
  The problem here is not Microsoft. I am surface pro 3 owner and i have to say that is one of the best machines i have used. I wouldn't change it for anything. I agree that MS is heading in the right direction. The steps that they are taking are to my opinion great for everyone. I have been a linux user for almost 10 years and windows 10 might be the reason to switch back. We will see. As for the driver issues, that is cause windows releases the software and then the hardware is provided by several companies which is up to them to not screw up there drivers. For apple they release one laptop and that is it. They only have to cater for that device which makes it a hell of a lot easier. Windows 8, has made huge progress in every hardware aspect of the machine.
  • regularfry 12y ago
    It absolutely is Microsoft's... well, not fault, exactly, but the way the ecosystem has evolved has been driven largely by choices they've made. If the ecosystem allows for buggy hardware driver releases to screw things up for customers, it's because MS made the choice, possibly by default, not to run an Apple-like ecosystem. The reason I don't blame MS entirely for this is because it's clearly a trade-off. In return for the risk of unreliability, they got a vast increase in the number of hardware manufacturers willing to play in their ecosystem, precisely because MS can be fairly hands-off. This drives prices down, and increases the size of the market-place. Where I do take issue with MS directly is that despite consciously being in the driving seat of an ecosystem like this for so long, it's taken them years to successfully isolate the user from buggy drivers. They control the OS, so they control the ability of a manufacturer's bug to affect the user. It's not a foregone conclusion that a screwed-up driver must inevitably lead to a bluescreen, or anything like it.
    • pjc50 12y ago
      Microsoft were not initially in control of the ecosystem; it was IBM's PC cloned by Compaq and then a horde of others. At one point there were competing desktop environments - Desqview, OS/2. They then faced the upgrade problem: at any point, restrictive control over drivers would mean that hardware that ran Windows N-1 would not run Windows N. There is also the antitrust argument: control over the OEMs restricts the possibilities for competing software. And there's a limit to what they can do. My latest driver/hardware bug was discovering that my Crucial MX100 has some horrible interaction with write caching and link power management such that it can vanish from underneath the operating system.
• andrewfong 12y ago
  > Also, dat touchpad, nothing competes... Trackpoint. Makes it very hard for me to switch from Thinkpads. Also, I'm growing quite fond of having a touch screen and a pen for my laptop.
  • donkeyd 12y ago
    I can imagine, must be the opposite of actually starting to work with the Trackpoint. I tried, I really did, but I never got it to work for me.
  • SiVal 12y ago
    I've used MacBooks for years, but I still miss my Trackpoint. I cranked its speed and sensitivity up to max and trained myself to adapt to it. After that, I could do anything with just an imperceptible twitch with my fingers still on the home keys, thumb on one of three buttons. It's like the vim of mice. If I could get one as an option on my MBP, I'd do it in a second.
• vbezhenar 12y ago
  Everyone has different experience. I never had hardware problems with HP, Lenovo, Dell notebooks. It was built badly, it could broke something, but notebook worked well. With Macbook I had broken HDD which was replaced by warranty but it took almost a month without my working tool. And 2 years later sound just stopped working. Headphones work but buggy. I don't think I can pay for repair, probably will tinker with it myself. My iPhone 4S had broken WiFi just after warranty expired. All cables from Mac and iPhone are in terrible state. I don't really think that Apple hardware is better than others. Not worse than others, but not perfect. Choice is between OS X and Windows or iOS and Android. Otherwise there are many comparable machines.
  • TeMPOraL 12y ago
    > Everyone has different experience. Yeah, I'm acutely reminded of this every time someone brings up Windows 7's predecessor. Apparently I'm the only person who ever lived on this planet who had absolutely zero problems with Windows Vista, and even liked it quite a bit.
    • blub 12y ago
      Make that two persons, I remember that it was quite ok on my machine.
      • TeMPOraL 12y ago
        Absolutely the only one issue I had with Vista was that system file copying went a little slow, and you could get 2x+ speedups by just using Total Commander instead. Apart from that, I had pretty much problem-free experience with Vista.
    • totalrobe 12y ago
      If you had a powerhouse computer it was fine. The midrange laptop I had at the time was not happy with it. It also broke compatibility with most of the games I had.
    • pmelendez 12y ago
• KobiQuantum 12y ago
  Anecdotal evidence. Here's mine: I never ever had any issues with any of my 3 desktop PCs or with mit X200 in the last 5 years. With my recent Thinkpad X1 carbon I had to boot only once into safe mode after upgrading some Lenovo provided driver after almost 2 years of use.
• perseusprime 12y ago
  If you have a late 2012 or early 2013 MBP you will know that your MBP will restart every time you played a video from youtube because they had a faulty GPU and refused to acknowledge it. There are problems with everything including the chromebooks but Apple's focus on quality is making Microsoft think twice and as a result is lifting all boats.
• Joeri 12y ago
  Then again, upgrading has made the wifi on my mac mini go wonky, twice, and last week an upgrade made it stop recognizing the display's native resolution and downgraded it to 1024x768. Upgrades are always dangerous.
• extc 12y ago
  This is how every OSX/iOS developer feels when they update Xcode or an iOS SDK. And Apple forces you to update in most cases, so you can't avoid it. They are breaking stuff left and right.
• mherdeg 12y ago
  It's funny you should say "Every time I update Windows, or even restart my windows laptop I hope that it'll still work afterwards. Updating has previously killed my dedicated graphics card, which turned out to be a driver issue. With Intel providing 2 nearly identical drivers one of which kills it." That's funny because … I just surrendered my MacBook Pro to an Apple Store for service yesterday because the external display mysteriously stopped working and the system won't fully boot. The on-site service tech was super competent but totally baffled and sent the machine away for Apple to replace components until things start working again. And today Apple just released OS X 10.10.3 Supplemental Update which has description "The OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 Supplemental Update fixes a video driver issue that may prevent your Mac from starting up when running certain apps that capture video." Hmmmmmmm.