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Woody Leonhard of Infoworld summarizes the current state of Microsoft KB 2919355, the ambiguously-titled 'Windows 8.1 Update' (not to be confused with the update _to_ Windows 8.1).
In short: Microsoft has frozen two discussion threads on KB2919355 issues (after 103 and 116 pages of comments), and updated the Knowledge Base article with workarounds for seven major errors... some of which don't work.
In last week's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft changed their deadline for this Update until June (formerly they were requiring all Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 systems worldwide to have installed the Update in order to receive new patches).
Meanwhile, if you run a WSUS server, you may notice that the package for KB291355 (last reissued for the third time on 6 May) was apparently silently reissued over the weekend with a new release date of '15 May 2014', but there's no indication of any software updates in the KB article. The article revision number, however, now stands at '21.0'. Yes, twenty-one revisions. With no changelog.
Anyone else with interesting stories about your deployment issues with this Update?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Marand on Tuesday May 20 2014, @07:33AM
Smug with good reason, though. I'm still using the same Debian install that I set up on an old desktop in 2000. It started as potato (2.2) and I've transitioned through all the versions over the years through apt-get dist-upgrade. I'm not even using the original hardware any more, it's all different, and this install is still working and still updating without problems.
I've migrated it across multiple hard disks, changed it from ext2 to ext3, and swapped out every single piece of hardware except the sound card (first gen SB Audigy, may it live forever), and it's still updated, current, and receiving security fixes, nearly fifteen years later.
Meanwhile, on the other side, how many Windows installs last that long? How easy it is to migrate your system to new hardware without a reinstall? What about just moving your install to a larger hard disk without a reinstall?
Each OS has its own smugness-factor. Windows users get to be smug about their games (at least for now); Linux users can be smug about the updating and migrating; and OS X users, I honestly don't know what they have that's worth being smug about, but they tend to be really smug, so they must have something.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by umafuckitt on Tuesday May 20 2014, @01:03PM
Your 2000 Debian install brings to mind the the ship of Theseus [wikipedia.org] or, as it's more commonly known in the UK, Trigger's broom [youtube.com]. Sorry for the shitty Tube vid; couldn't find a better one.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday May 21 2014, @04:00AM
Definitely true on the hardware side, though I was focusing more on the fact that the OS is resilient enough to still be usable through such a scenario. It's still using many of the same configs, scripts, and tweaks as it was years ago, installed only once from ~2000 era Debian install media.
Fun fact: the last time I used Debian's install media on this system, I had to use dselect to set everything up. The only reason I know what the modern installer looks like is from setting it up on a laptop. That's a large part of why I consider it still to be the same installation despite all the updates and changes. ;)
Also, that clip's a good practical (and humorous) example of the Ship of Theseus thing. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, might be useful to link to others in the future.