I think you've got a setting wrong. I've got mine set to download only. So it just downloads the update in the background and notifies me. I have even left that notification sitting there for months before without it forcing or nagging me.
You can turn off automatic updates, but it will still give you a notification when there is one so you can make it update at night.
Also, OS X? Is the OS 10.X or you're just referring to it as OS X. Because in newer macOS versions, I can confirm the automatic updates do it at night when you're not using the computer.
That ignore system messages. This post will be anecdotal, but I can't ever get my systems to suddenly restart or reinstall the bloatware apps like some people claim theirs do. It honestly seems like it's "power users" fucking with things that they don't actually understand, and then complaining that things aren't working the way they expect.
We have 5 Windows 11 systems in our household, and 2 family members that are terrible with computers. None of them act the way some randoms on the Internet claim Windows 11 does with updates all the time. And everyone I personally know doesn't seem to have these issues either. But we're also not installing random patches or messing with settings that don't have a natural and intentional UI element.
All of our systems I help with for family and friends update on their own, and prompt when a restart is needed, including a button to delay the restart. If ignored, it prompts after a day or so again and only if ignored or delayed for an extended period will eventually give a countdown to a forced restart. I only noticed the countdown because I was explicitly trying to reproduce what people online claim about it suddenly restarting while using it. And at that point it WILL restart even in use, but that's after an extended period, multiple days, of ignoring notifications about it.
I also don't have issues on my systems with those annoying bloatware app links (like Candy Crush) reinstalling, etc. on their own. I turned off the various advertising settings in the settings menus and uninstalled the app links like normal. They've never returned.
Since I've been completely unable to reproduce these relatively common complaints on multiple systems myself, I can only assume people are adjusting settings or installing various patches from the Internet that mess with things that aren't intended to be user-facing and that ends up causing issues. Like the infinite number of patches to remove telemetry, etc. that people don't know what's actually being changed by it, but install for privacy.
Agreed.
I'm a professional IT tech and see a lot of desktops during the week including my own.
We have some Windows PCs that still had 1809 installed because Windows does not manage to update itself without being forced to search.
This has been my experience on Windows 11 as well. I've moved away from Windows for unrelated reasons but I've never had it update without prior knowledge and I've only had windows 10 add Edge to my taskbar once. That was years ago.
I mostly agree with you. But something like 3 years ago, I remember letting my PC run while I was gathering seats over night. There was no previous "restart now" or even "update now". However, in the morning, I found the PC had restarted too install an update. And that was the standard setting back then. I changed it to only prompt that there are updates since, and AFAIR that setting was "reset" 1 or 2 times ever since in an update.
But seeing how absurdly niche what I do is, I doubt that random users will care. And sadly they need to be forced to update for the sake of all of us.
What troubles me is the fact that there is no way to turn off updates and just update when I want it to. Hell, even Android has that. I want to update when I want to, not when MS sees fit to update my operating system.
I'd just like to interject for moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!
> chad GNU/Linux respecting my preferences.
> only updates when I do sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade.
> finishes updating kernel and 150 packages in less than 5 minutes whilst I'm merging a pr.
> I close computer when I'm done, unaware of updates.
> open it up next day and it starts like nothing happened.
> mfw I read this post
Hate to break it to you, but no. I turned every option regarding cpu or ram overclocking off and it still won't post stable. Doesn't matter, i am a cs phd, so i pretty much start the system in the morning and shut it down before i go to bed, this way i just have to start it before getting coffee :)
Computers mostly don't force software updates on you, unless you tell them to. (Caveat: IT routinely forces updates on people.) Find the setting where you specifically asked the machine to keep itself updated, and turn it off. If you can't find it, throw the machine away and get a better one where you can be in control:-P. This concludes my sermon for today, I hope you all have some Happy Holidays!:-P