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Comment by artursapek | Hacker News Reader

Software updates are the rare case where I can forgive it. It's annoying to have clients actively resisting updates, especially security updates.

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Security update? 9.3.4 => 9.3.5? That's an update

9.3.5 => 10.0 is not a "security update".

Constant nagware until you update is asinine. "Update Now or Later?"... f* you, I don't like what I see in 10... but I'm stuck with dancing around daily fucking warnings.

I swear... I'm not bitter :) I also won't buy another iPhone.

Workaround: the iOS10 update requires 1GB of space. The nag only appears if the update has been auto-downloaded. Use "Manage Storage" to delete the 1GB update file for iOS10. THen load enough music/video on your iPhone so there is less than 1GB space. Presto, no more iOS10 download (won't fit) and no more nagging.

Gross that you have to go to these lengths, but upvoted for having a solution.

My solution was to give the iPad to my kid and get an Android.

And you will never get an OS update again. Android products seem to be orphaned at whatever OS is current at the time of production.

Just bought a new Android table and it had lollipop. Turns out you cannot get the most recent OS for it so I am stuck with a 2 year old OS.

Ditto 4.4

First of all there's a big difference in how Android gets upgraded. Google doesn't need to upgrade the base operating system in order to push changes to its apps and they can even push security fixes and upgrades to the base operating system by means of Play Services and supporting libraries by which they push backports.

It also depends on the Android device. I have a Nexus 6, released 2014, that's on the latest Android 7 (Nougat) and my old Nexus 4, released 2012, is on Android 5 (Lollipop).

Maybe I would have preferred if my Nexus 4 also got upgraded to the latest, but then again it might not have the needed juice, I like very much how it runs right now and all the apps I use still work and receive updates. And I also have an older iPad that got upgraded by Apple and is now unusable.

Even so, with Apple there's no way out - once upgraded, it stays upgraded and once support is dropped, it stays droppped. With my Nexus I have a choice - because of Android's nature I can always use CyanogenMod. It's not exactly a solution for the non-technical-savvy, but it works.

My Note 4 came with kitkat installed two years ago. Shortly thereafter I was able to upgrade to lollipop. For the past several months now I've been ignoring the available upgrade to marshmallow because honestly neither my cell provider nor Google has any incentive to let me keep a perfectly good phone for another year or two, so I'm worried a major performance hit is the only real feature I can expect from the new version. I know I'm being slightly irrational in this concern, but can anyone confirm that the jump from Android 5 to 6 doesn't cripple phones with "old" specs (since it's targeted to the latest phones)? I'd love to update if it turns out this is not the case.

5 to 6 was fine on my G4. I'm not sure how it compares to the Note 4 but the phone is at least a generation old. There is another pending OS update I've been ignoring for a few months, not for fear of being crippled, but just because I can.

Not sure if this was intended but this comment is actually kind of funny considering Android's lack of updates is a frequent point of criticism. Update notifications are probably the one thing you don't have to worry about with Android.

On a more serious note, in my opinion updates are an exemption and the user should be urged to do them.

I don't necessarily want to AVOID an update. I don't update to new OS's.

XP sucked until SP2. 8 sucked until 8.1u1. 10 gets better each roll.

My issue with iOS 10 is the changes to the underlying flow (like unlocking the phone) and the lack of tweakability (basic issue with iOS). Naggware on top of that grates my nerves.

I just got an update yesterday. (OnePlus 3)

Quite nice. Might do this for the test devices we've got at work to prevent accidental updates.

My problem with that is the dance you have to do after words...

* It won't download over cell towers * It won't download if less than 1GB available on phone

Now, I've got to balance my space to within 1gb and minimize time outside of that while on Wifi.

Swap out audio books? Take too many pictures/videos? Podcast downloads? Game/App downloads?

I know this option exists... and it's just as crappy - if not more so - than clicking "No" every day.

If it was only about the security update. But in the case of iOS it is not. It's is the opportunity to start the nagging all over again. Please start using iCloud. Let's use Apple Pay now. Let's use Apple Music.

On every single minor "security" update...

Even worse; let's break backwards compatibility with your paid software so that you have to purchase an upgrade license... If you've had a Mac long enough and you run paid software you know what I'm talking about. :(

Considering the wide availability of beta OS updates, I'd say that's on the developers of said software. Sure, as someone who works in audio and has to deal with a range of software instruments/effects and audio interface drivers, I know exactly what you're talking about and I have little understanding for developers expensive software/hardware that don't test and fix their products before OS releases.

Considering the wide availability of beta OS updates, I'd say that's on the developers of said software.

Why? If the developers produced a product that works and sold it to a user at a fair price, why on earth should those developers then have some sort of indefinite responsibility for producing updates because other people chose to break compatibility?

There is a reason we have standards and there is a reason it's important for system software in particular to define and support standard interfaces. In fact, that is arguably the primary function of an operating system: to provide a stable platform on which other software can run.

The fact that some of the main OS providers no longer seem to recognise this and instead consider instability and backward-incompatibility to be strategic assets makes me genuinely afraid for the near future of our industry. If I want to do something as simple as buying a laptop for one of my small businesses tomorrow, so someone can get on with useful work and will be able to continue doing so for a long time, there are currently no good options available.

I certainly disagree on this point. Take the case of a small software company that ends up not being all that successful. I purchase a license for said software; it is useful for me, but the company goes out of business since they are unprofitable.

Now Apple breaks backwards compatibility with this software when I upgrade.

Even in the case of the software maker still being in business, should they have to provide me free upgrades for life? If they do that then they have diminishing profits with every upgrade. On the flip side, should I have to pay for a new license when I don't need the new features and am perfectly happy staying on the existing version if it only would continue to work?

To give two quick examples of this I used to run Parallels on my Mac so I could run a couple of Windows apps that I absolutely had to have and it would have been very inconvenient to use a boot camp setup and reboot every time I needed access. Then when the Mac version changed Parallels quit working; my only option was to buy a new license for Parallels. To make matters worse; you never really know what software will break when there is an upgrade, but if you don't upgrade then you end up in the boat that some other piece of software you are running does get updated, but you can't use that software without getting the latest version of Mac.

When I compare this to Windows; I'm still running today on Windows 10 software that I purchased for Windows 95. For all of the many things I dislike about Windows; the one thing I applaud them for is their level of backwards compatibility.

Or how about popping a dialog to inform me that cellular data is disabled for $app every time I open it while not connected to wifi, even though $app most certainly does not require access to data in order to work.

I'm of the "avoid popups at all cost" school of UI design. As soon as you let developers have modal UI that isn't meant to accomplish a specific, user-initiated task, they will immediately start using that power to be obnoxious.

Usually $app actually requires access to internet for stuff you are unaware of.

But Apple doesn't just push security updates. They have a well established track record of pushing entire new OSes the same way, a very poor record of crippling performance or outright bricking older ("old" is hardly a fair description) devices in the process, and a stubborn insistence that applying these updates is a one-way process that may never be reverted regardless of any harm they do. Any business that adopts such customer-hostile policies deserves every bit of resistance they bring upon themselves, and I have not the slightest sympathy for them.

Hm, iOS 10 seemed more like a feature release than a security one. I've finally stopped getting update notifications after I rolled back my phone.

Update: Still getting nuisance notifications.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13120242

I can't, since the "tonight" option never works and "right now" I'm interacting with my phone for a specific purpose that (like navigation) that won't wait half an hour or three quarters of a charge for an OS upgrade.

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