Microsoft beats Apple, Ubuntu in service reliability

A company that measures internet service reliability has given Microsoft the top score in a test of operating system update services.

Microsoft's Windows Update was available 100 per cent of the second quarter of 2008, Pingdom said in a blog posting Friday. Apple's service was down 2 hours and 34 minutes, with 99.9 percent uptime, and Canonical's Ubuntu version of Linux was down 1 day, 5 hours, and 45 minutes, for 98.64 percent uptime.

"Microsoft wins this one hands down," Pingdom said. It noted that Ubuntu's service also is available through mirror sites, however.

The company tested the three services every five minutes.

Canonical's update service for the Ubuntu operating system had more downtime than Apple's or Microsoft's services.
Credit: Pingdom

Talkback 9 comments

    What a load of codswallop! Anonymous -- 14/07/08

    "It noted that Ubuntu's service also is available through mirror sites, however."

    So, end result....Ubuntu 'downtime' = 0 , that's 100% uptime.

    If anyone, anywhere around the world hit "check for updates" on their machine then it would have worked...all the time!

    Stupid and meaningless statistics.

    This is news? Anonymous -- 14/07/08

    How is this news and not simply an ad for Pingdom? Is it really that slow a day guys?

    any M$ news is news for zdnet Anonymous -- 14/07/08

    They're M$ fanbois don't you know. Dunno what they're going to report on now Bill's left.

    oh dear Anonymous -- 14/07/08

    As the other people have said, I'll second the motion that this is not a correct representation of reality.
    I would also like to point out that this also does not address the time it takes for a patch to be released for a problem! This is the real issue - time taken for updates being available to address security flaws and we all know who is the worst at this, by miles.

    False caption Anonymous -- 15/07/08

    "Canonical's update service for the Ubuntu operating system had more downtime than Apple's or Microsoft's services."

    But by your own admission:

    "It noted that Ubuntu's service also is available through mirror sites, however."

    So you have contradicted yourself. Either it's available to the user or it's not - make up your mind, at least.

    Why did you waste my time? Anonymous -- 16/07/08

    You just wasted two minutes of my life with this article?

    What is the point - it is rubbish!

    I want it back!

    Legal View Oliver Holmes -- 16/07/08

    I have sent this article to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. You see in Australia under s 52 of the Trade Practices Act it is illegal to engage in misleading and deceptive conduct. Articles like this qualify :-)

    See you in court

    Real thing Patrick -- 01/08/08

    The real thing is that I can update my computer FAST !! I donwload updates on ubuntu at >450K.
    When i update windows XP zZzZzZzZ always <60K.
    So canonical can turn off, but have mirrors, but i just have FAST UPDATE !!
    When I go update M$ it usually takes about ~15 minutes.

    Not a true statement Anonymous -- 27/08/08

    This is completely a false statement and i agree that mirror sites are there to provide services. The package manager / source repository manager has the ability to test all its mirror sites, find the best possible and fastest route and retreive the patch from them in no time. For M$ you have to wait for approx twice the time.

    The real problem of how fast a fix is available for a vulnerability is more important.

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