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Comment by Eriks | Hacker News Reader

Also macOS Big Sur 11.5.1 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212622

I don't like the update system introduced in Big Sur. An update that is only around 124MB on iOS is 2.20 GB on Big Sur.

If you think about the amount of TV in hours people watch on a daily basis via streaming services, it’s weird to me that a 2 GB OS patch could be considered a problem.

Data transfer isn’t a finite resource like oil or gas.

That doesn't mean that we should just ignore efficiency. Smaller downloads means less bandwidth required on apple's side as well.

This also ignores that not everyone has stellar connection speeds, and that some people -do- have bandwidth caps (also, let's ignore that people are often mobile). Developers really need to stop making assumptions about people's hardware or internet speeds... and just do their jobs and make efficient designs. Maybe one day everyone will have super beefy machines on fiber optic networks with 10gb nics, but that's not the reality as of now.

If a patch needs to be 2gb, then so be it. But if it could be 100mb, then that's certainly better and something to strive for.

On the other hand. Big tech companies forcing 2GB updates on people pushes demand for upgraded internet infrastructure.

> Data transfer isn’t a finite resource like oil or gas.

It absolutely is for many people. Not everyone has unlimited services. Even on fixed line services many are limited.

>Data transfer isn’t a finite resource like oil or gas.

Clearly you haven't seen those crappy limited data ISP contracts floating around. It's an issue for some people.

I’d love to know why people are downvoting you. You’re completely right - a minor update that would take 2 minutes on Windows or previous macOS versions now requires a 2 GB download and a 15-20 minutes install process.

I don't think the install duration is new. Most of the security updates on MacOS 10.15 have taken about 15-20 minutes to install on my 2020 MBP. And the first stage claims that it will only be a couple of minutes. Annoying as hell.

Any idea if Catalina or Mojave are effected? No security update for them yet. Perhaps the updates are forthcoming.

Apple is known for providing ZERO official guidance on the lifecycle of security updates for older versions. It really looks like they're trending towards an iOS model where there's no concept of support for anything but the latest version. (The one exception is that older iOS devices stuck on iOS 12 have still been receiving updates)

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