How often do you update your apps on your devices?
me:
- android: 2x per year, except some app needs an update to work
- linux/manjaro: every few months, except security stuff (ik its a rolling release distro but I hate updating frequently)
A while ago I updated mostly directly after publish. But since more and more apps (primarily Google services, Social Media, …) get shitty updates which include AI and bloat, I try to update as less as possible while stil trying to get important and new features.
But many apps freak out when not applying these updates in this timespan, which makes it really annoying when needing an app urgently. Then having to update them with eventually bad network makes me aggressive.
Which are your opinions?
Windows - if it’s possible I only run security updates and postpone all other until there’s no other way. I use Windows only for gaming and because I don’t have much spare time I don’t want to waste it on updates.
Linux - security fixes on a daily basis, all other updates I postpone as long as possible. I was using Linux as my daily driver but the amount of issues I ran into due to updates was too much for me.
macOS - security fixes immediately, minor updates few days after the release, major updates usually until the next minor version gets released.
GrapheneOS - as soon as update is available
iPhone/iPad - security fixes immediately, other updates few days after the release.
On Android I have auto update enabled, and it works alright. Sometimes an update removes a feature I liked though, which is more of a problem with the state of software these days than updating.
On Linux I just update whenever I feel like it, or when I need a new feature.
On Windows 10 I never update. I disabled it 3 years ago and will never install another update, ever. They were using automatic updates to reset my privacy changes, pester me with ads, and try to trick me into updating to Windows 11. I’m never on that OS for long enough that it matters. I only use it when there’s something that I can’t accomplish on my phone or Linux, because some asshole somewhere decided that they’re going to force Windows.
My Linux laptop is set to check for updates daily, which I then apply manually when I notice the tray icon. I sometimes procrastinate when it comes to reboots though.
My Android phone is on auto-update, which seems to mean whenever it’s being charging for a few hours (so typically when charging overnight). Because the battery is still pretty good and I don’t need to charge daily, that comes down to once every 2-3 nights or so.
My personal Linux servers (which run my self-hosted apps) are configured to automatically apply all updates (and reboot if necessary afterwards) at the time of day I’m most likely to be awake and available to manually fix stuff if anything goes wrong. The Docker-containers that run on them mostly get auto-updated to the latest version every 6 hours by Watchtower. A few containers have more cautious policies though, ranging from pinning a major version (but auto-upgrading to new minor versions within that) to pinning a specific version and at most sending a notification if there’s an update. The latter is limited to stuff that has broken before and/or where newer releases are known to be buggy or incompatible.
When it comes to major updates (i.e. new distro releases) of my Linux machines, I typically wait about a month before upgrading because I’ve been bitten by release-day bugs before.
I update whenever it is convenient or pushed. On Android it’s not really a decision that I make, it just updates whenever it feels like it and so far I haven’t disagreed very often. On my desktop I update Arch pretty much weekly, and Windows as little as possible because it wants to restart during the updating process and will probably just pull in more spyware. My Ubuntu laptop isn’t used often, so it doesn’t get updated often either. I also sometimes use some Fedora machines, which I also don’t update too regularly.
Ubuntu and the multiple Fedora machines under my control also like to start unattended updates at the worst possible moments, which regularly interrupts my attempts to update or install stuff. I prefer to turn that shit off at every opportunity. I’d rather just get a notification that it wants me to update in the DE or terminal
You update twice a year?? Enjoy your security vulnerabilities i guess.
I dont really use critical apps on my phone and on some important apps, i cant use them until I update them. So theres not a big risk or danger for not updating them. still there are some apps i update often but for the big all, twice a year must be enough
I thought you meant like all apps, ha. My bad. Yea there are def apps that you’d wanna use old versions for.