Mastodawn

Amazing, macOS 26 really is like Windows. My Mac Mini rebooted overnight to install an update, without asking, and despite the fact I left Xcode in the middle of a debugging session last night. There's a proud notification about "background security improvement". IT'S NOT A BACKGROUND IMPROVEMENT IF IT THROWS OUT MY WORK-IN-PROGRESS AND REBOOTS THE COMPUTER.
(Automatic updates were disabled, but I had left the "download security updates" option enabled. So I guess I have to disable that too.)

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Franklin Delano Stallone Mar 18

@pmdj to be fair the rapid security responses have been part of macOS for awhile now. I think it just happens it’s never been used until now. It’s unfortunate but if it’s used for genuinely important security patches and is rare, I don’t think that’s the worst scenario

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Phil Dennis-Jordan Mar 18

@fds Unless it's literally fixing a bug that would otherwise cause the computer to catch fire and burn down the house, I don't see what could possibly be so important that I get no say in the matter.
I know this kind of overstepping boundaries and ignoring lack of consent is totally hip with all the big tech and startup companies at the moment. That doesn't mean I have to accept it.

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Franklin Delano Stallone Mar 18

@pmdj I’m not saying it doesn’t suck. A default of needing to opt in means the vast majority will never do it. Yet in this case it’s a bug that can affect everyone in their most common app (browser). Sure we could tell everyone just learn to use their computer properly but that applies in this case too.

We should have the right to do what we want on our computers and also acknowledge how much more is at stake with everyone’s lives now on their computers so defaults should be the most secure.

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Franklin Delano Stallone

@pmdj you do get a choice if you’re using it at the time but if you’re not then it goes ahead. It could be reasonable to leave a dialog up but there’s an option to just not do them.

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Phil Dennis-Jordan Mar 18

@fds Well, by forcing a hard OS reboot for a minor browser(!) patch they've successfully made me disable the whole mechanism.
(Which incidentally made me check the other Macs, and I can't find the "background security improvements" setting on anything pre-Tahoe, so this does appear to be a new mechanism, which explains why it's never bitten me before.)
And of course, this incident has made me more determined not to buy any more of Apple's stuff. 😐

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Franklin Delano Stallone Mar 18

@pmdj There was rapid security update or something like that but this is background security improvements. It could have been renamed or I'm wrong but I still think it's mostly a good thing. Imo the balance gets harder when lots of people use the same OS.

I do like Linux and it's mostly the same but the trade off imo is it has other paper cuts. like still hitting audio glitches even on the same brand as my 1st Linux laptop that had no audio issues. But both are better than windows imo.