[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

They have moved to a subscription service for Office 365 which is what I was referring to but I was not specific. Pretty sure I did not say anything specific either about about Windows 10 being subscription based, maybe you can point out where I did?

Of course you are a Linux person from what I gather so not expected to be up to date on Microsoft, and chances are neither am I.

I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that since you were mentioning upgrading Windows, your subscription comment was about Windows itself, not an unrelated topic.

So yes, you should've clarified before assuming "you are a Linux person from what I gather so not expected to be up to date on Microsoft"...

OOH, OOH, looks like I might actually have thought before I spoke, instead of being a clueless non-Windows user.
Who'd'a thunk?

Windows generally allows you to update when you want to, but sometimes there is the random reboot in the middle of the night, which I resent as I sometimes have to get out of bed after the interminable update and put in my password before I can continue watching the TV show or listening to whatever. I resent it furthermore, because Windows is always warning me that software updates are turned off, which is clearly not the case.

Interesting to know that both Linux and Macs have forced or nagging updates. I ran Linux for a while and periodically try it out (last September was the last time) but it just feels rough around the edges for me. I did not encounter any forced or nagging updates, but as this would be, for me, its one redeeming quality, good to know it happens. Not that I hate Linux, just don't like it.

Err, I said they don't nag you. Ubuntu Update Manager for example will IIRC pop up a "Your updates have completed"-style* message as part of the updater GUI (the sparkly download bars, you see ) which will also alert you if "Some updates will not take effect until your PC is rebooted" or some such*. usually, a kernel upgrade will require this.
Then it shuts up.

A command-line updater, like ArchLinux's pacman, or Ubuntu's apt-get backend, won't pop up anything at all, mostly because it often gets run on a headless server...

Additionally, Ubuntu's desktop environment contains code to add a red bar in the dropdown for the logoff/shutdown/account-switcher tray icon, a simple unobtrusive banner that reminds you that some updates will take effect after the next reboot.



Contrast that to Windows, where the reboot is mandatory and pops up annoying timer messages, something that has admittedly gotten less (but still somewhat) offensive in successive Windows versions. And when Windows does reboot, it must "Configure Updates" for obscene periods of time....



Regarding nagging you to perform updates, neither linux nor Mac nor Windows does that to my knowledge. Windows has a tray icon which you can easily hide, or change the options to make it not check automatically. Ubuntu can be set to check automatically, and if so, will display the aforementioned unobtrusive banner, with a different message. (Other distros have their own ways, addons to the desktop -- none are even mandatory.)


* -- I forget the exact language used, simply because I moved on from Ubuntu a long time ago.

Probably you are right about best user experience, but for my situation, I would just as soon my settings didn't transfer unless I wanted them to do so explicitly.


Helen

I agree, that is merely what MS claims is the best user experience. For most people it is in fact irrelevant...