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Comment by nathos | Hacker News Reader

I 'verun into this on Windows XP, but never on Mac OS X. Actually, I don't think Windows 7 forces reboots either, it just installs updates when you shut down or restart.

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OS X definitely starts to nag if you dont update in awhile.

…but it doesn't install updates and restart your computer without permission.

Unless I'm misremembering, unless you ask for detailed information about the updates, it doesn't tell you ahead of time if it's going to ask to restart your computer. It just says basically, "There are updates available. Do you want them?"

you're probably misremembering -- there's a little arrow next to the update items which require a reboot, and even after installing everything, you can still choose to reboot later. I still have a system running Tiger so I don't think it's changed since then.

I just checked. The standard Software Update screen in 10.6 doesn't have a list of items. It just has three buttons: "Show Details", "Not Now" and "Install" — the list you're talking about is revealed by "Show Details." You do still have the option to wait as long as you want to restart, though.

The bouncing icon in the dock is definitely annoying.

I think vista (and seven ?) handles softwares updates in a more friendly way, asking you if you want to do the updates when you shutdown the system.

I have had 7 force reboots before (usually while I'm in game), but there is an option to disable that 'feature'.

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