This kind of shit happens with a similar frequency… on Arch Linux. It’s rolling release, shit happens sometimes. archlinux.org’s homepage actually lists past major packaging issues.
Debian however is rock-fucking-solid. But so is Windows Server, I hear. The problem is that Microsoft is treating Windows Home/Pro like a rolling release distro, and the users are guinea pigs. I guess Microsoft is right though, their users will eat it up 'till shit is spilling out from both ends, so why bother?
Exactly, plus you can decide if you want to be on a stable distro versus one where you get to test new features / get all the updates at the cost of stability.
That’s a good point. Beta users save a lot, I mean a lot, of headaches for stable users. I am not sure if Windows even does beta and alpha versions anymore.
MacOS only has ~10-15% market share (depending on which stats you read) so something breaking in MacOS has much less impact compared to Windows. Apple also control the hardware, so there’s fewer things that can go wrong.
Microsoft stopped trying a long time ago. The benefits of having a monopoly. Windows would have to cease functioning entirely for them to lose their position.
The is a genuine question that I don’t have the answer to.
I would say that because nobody can muster the consensus on any real policy. There’s plenty of legacy, with many different people and teams responsible, knowledge lost and so on.
And then this requires some sort of unified vision. Despite, eh, all the downsides, Apple can do that. MS can’t.
They’d honestly have to make a separate “neowin” subsystem with new GUI and everything, and make win32 and win64 and all the old tooling optional and parallel. Because their approach to backward compatibility means keeping everything around. They can’t fix the mess maintaining that.
Probably also comes down to not many softwares deciding to fuck with system files.
Recently had a borked Win7 -> Win10 install that was unable to keep the Win11 upgrade stable.
After an update and reboot it stopped working.
Probable reason why: Some McAfee drive encryption driver embedded in the system files.
The drive wasnt encrypted. All files were externally readable by our backup software.
But removing the files from system32 borked the system and resulted in BSODs.
This is complete bullshit Windows machines break WAY more often whenever MS releases their spotty updates. Especially when they decided to break up their quality control dept years ago. Every other week or so you get this shite with Windows/MS.
Yeah I had an apple machine running filevault get locked out of its file system during an update and end up with no OS. Tried to revert back to before the update but the encryption keys werent working to unlock it. I had to install a new OS which isnt to bad on mac. Worst part was it wasnt even a major upgrade just a security patch.
War this a widespread issue? I know every computer can have one of issues, but Microsoft seems to have regular widespread issues and I was wandering about example where Apple also had widespread issues.
My Apple-using friends seem split on this when I ask them whether Macs are stable these days. I’ve heard from several people that their reputation for stability is a hangover from the past, and updates in recent years have been somewhat unreliable. But it would be hard to get good comparative data given that the companies won’t be eager to share the numbers.
How does Microsoft regularly. Was up this badly?
Do all companies (Apple/linux) do it to but we don’t hear about it because of the smaller user base or is Microsoft literally this incompetent?
If they are, why can they fix the root issue?
The is a genuine question that I don’t have the answer to.
This kind of shit happens with a similar frequency… on Arch Linux. It’s rolling release, shit happens sometimes. archlinux.org’s homepage actually lists past major packaging issues.
Debian however is rock-fucking-solid. But so is Windows Server, I hear. The problem is that Microsoft is treating Windows Home/Pro like a rolling release distro, and the users are guinea pigs. I guess Microsoft is right though, their users will eat it up 'till shit is spilling out from both ends, so why bother?
Any reason to not just run windows server for desktop use?
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Apple’s base is big enough where if a problem like this happens, it’s a big deal. Apple has the benefit of controlling both hardware and software.
With Linux, being open source helps it out since so many people can test and chime in.
Exactly, plus you can decide if you want to be on a stable distro versus one where you get to test new features / get all the updates at the cost of stability.
Your distro can also decide what version to be on for each package. Slackware regularly rolls back a broken package until upstream fixes it.
That’s a good point. Beta users save a lot, I mean a lot, of headaches for stable users. I am not sure if Windows even does beta and alpha versions anymore.
They have the Windows Insider program, which is basically beta testing - and maybe sometimes alpha testing these days.
I should really keep up with Windows news even if I don’t use it.
Thank you for the info and thank you for posting.
MacOS only has ~10-15% market share (depending on which stats you read) so something breaking in MacOS has much less impact compared to Windows. Apple also control the hardware, so there’s fewer things that can go wrong.
Microsoft stopped trying a long time ago. The benefits of having a monopoly. Windows would have to cease functioning entirely for them to lose their position.
I would say that because nobody can muster the consensus on any real policy. There’s plenty of legacy, with many different people and teams responsible, knowledge lost and so on.
And then this requires some sort of unified vision. Despite, eh, all the downsides, Apple can do that. MS can’t.
They’d honestly have to make a separate “neowin” subsystem with new GUI and everything, and make win32 and win64 and all the old tooling optional and parallel. Because their approach to backward compatibility means keeping everything around. They can’t fix the mess maintaining that.
Thanks I wondered if the backwards compatibility stuff was part of it.
Thanks for what? I’m not knowledgeable, it’s just poking with my finger into the sky
Your response
However often you think windows machines break on updates Apple ones break 100x more.
I’ve been on macOS since the Windows XP era and never in my life has the OS broken after a software update.
Come to think of it, same goes with iOS. I’ve been on iOS since the iPhone 4.
Probably also comes down to not many softwares deciding to fuck with system files.
Recently had a borked Win7 -> Win10 install that was unable to keep the Win11 upgrade stable.
After an update and reboot it stopped working.
Probable reason why: Some McAfee drive encryption driver embedded in the system files.
The drive wasnt encrypted. All files were externally readable by our backup software.
But removing the files from system32 borked the system and resulted in BSODs.
Is it this invasive on the mac side?
This is complete bullshit Windows machines break WAY more often whenever MS releases their spotty updates. Especially when they decided to break up their quality control dept years ago. Every other week or so you get this shite with Windows/MS.
No windows is pretty reliable with its updates. Most of the issues in windows are from HP and dell shipping bad driver updates.
Right… thanks for the laugh… lol
Oh look: https://www.windowslatest.com/2025/08/20/microsoft-is-investigating-windows-11-kb5063878-ssd-data-corruption-failure-issue/
Do you have an examples of this? I have not used Mac for quite some time.
Yeah I had an apple machine running filevault get locked out of its file system during an update and end up with no OS. Tried to revert back to before the update but the encryption keys werent working to unlock it. I had to install a new OS which isnt to bad on mac. Worst part was it wasnt even a major upgrade just a security patch.
War this a widespread issue? I know every computer can have one of issues, but Microsoft seems to have regular widespread issues and I was wandering about example where Apple also had widespread issues.
No
I suggest you take a look at the apple forums if you dont believe me.
My Apple-using friends seem split on this when I ask them whether Macs are stable these days. I’ve heard from several people that their reputation for stability is a hangover from the past, and updates in recent years have been somewhat unreliable. But it would be hard to get good comparative data given that the companies won’t be eager to share the numbers.