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Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

On the one hand, Microsoft gets criticized for abandoning millions of machines by dropping support for XP. Then, Microsoft gets criticized for not letting that happen with Windows 7 and 8 by keeping them up to date.

Do people tend to complain about Chrome's auto updates?

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OS upgrades aren't directly comparable to automatically-updating software. They bring big changes and break compatibility. In the case of Windows 10, it merges two UI paradigms together. When software updates itself, it doesn't typically hop to the next major version, anyway. Chrome and evergreen software like it are exceptions.

This is especially true for Windows, which doesn't have a seamless upgrade process.

Not only is there an issue of the user interface changing significantly, but there are also driver issues when manufacturers are slow to release updated drivers (big problems for older devices). Anecdotal, but I have heard many people complain of increased blue screens.

There is middle ground that you aren't considering: give people an option to update.

They didn't give that option to people with xp, and they aren't giving that option to people with windows 7.

Yes, especially when they seem to affect their applications.

Automatic updates are easy (mostly). Healthy software and vulnerability management that doesn't damage productivity needlessly can be a lot of work. What do you test?

The classic simplified use case for this is Java runtimes: Your organization needs: a) A specific Java version to run a critical application b) Not to have workstations compromised though weak Java versions.

As a technology and security professional in this space your objective is to meet both of these goals. As the application developer you may have totally different goals (release date, market share, sales, renewals) and may not have these on your map at all...

Chrome's updates have always been like this, whereas people bought Windows 7/8/8.1 machines with the expectation that they would be able to keep using those versions unless they chose to upgrade.

Do people tend to complain about Chrome's auto updates?

I'd bet most of those are minor bugfixes which don't change behaviour drastically, but fix things like exploits. Most people won't even notice any changes and they can keep using the software like they used to.

And when Chrome and such do add stuff, any changes are gradual and unobtrusive. In a sense there is only one "major version" of Chrome and it is continually subtly changing.

On the other hand, operating systems and most software have distinct major versions and automatic updates only happen within those versions.

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