Operating system updates - Windows vs Linux vs OS X

I run Windows and Linux on PCs and OS X on the Apple Mac. All operating systems are frequently updated with bug fixes, patches and occasionally feature additions too. Each OS has a built in automatic facility to check for the availability of new updates and to download and install them. The question is, which operating system has the biggest updates requiring the most time to download and install, which has the most updates, and which has the smallest and the least? Running Windows, Linux and OS X every day means that I get to download a lot of updates and it is interesting how each OS is different.

If there was a prize for the biggest updates then Apple would win hands down. It's updates are huge, really huge. Security Update 2010-007 is 240Mb, but that's not big, that's a small update for Apple. Mac OS X 10.6.5 Combo Update is 977Mb. Yes, that's near enough a gigabyte! A combo update is really like a service pack that contains everything but the kitchen sink and if you keep your system regularly updated then you only need the regular Mac OS X 10.6.5 Update at a mere 644Mb.

Those aren't the only updates - they're just the latest ones and there have been many more throughout the year. Every time Apple adds some minor feature to iTunes that I'll never use I'm prompted to download the whole installation package again and it's currently 90Mb. Apple seems incapable of updating a single module and if one tiny thing changes in the OS or an application you have to download and install the whole thing again.

Another irritation is that Apple's Software Update tends to hog the internet bandwidth and it really slows down the computer - for hours if you're on a slow internet connection.

I run Ubuntu Linux mostly and keep it up to date. I've had to change the default settings for the software update facility though, because there were just too many. Every week there was an update. In fact, Ubuntu has just announced that it will be updating daily! Do people really want this? Fortunately, Linux is a small and compact operating system that is a fraction of the size of Windows and OS X, and the updates aren't too big. Certainly nowhere near the size of Apple's.

It is common for people to complain about the number and size of Windows updates, but the complainers are often Apple or Linux fanatics. I have found that Windows 7 updates are less frequent than Linux and smaller than Apple's. In fact, I hardly notice them. Windows checks for updates and downloads them in the background without interfering with what you are doing or hogging the bandwidth. It clearly has the best OS update system and the only thing you notice is that occasionally when you shut down the computer, it takes a little longer because updates that Windows downloaded in the background without you noticing are being installed. You don't have to sit and watch it and you can walk away and leave it too, because it shuts down when it has finished. Linux and OS X require you to click buttons and restart.

So for simplicity, size and frequency, Windows 7 wins, Ubuntu Linux is second and OS X 10.6 is third.