Apple and Microsoft always recommend having a recent backup before installing updates to its operating systems.

I recommend that too.

But I also suggest you refrain from updating to these latest upgrade behemoths until the bugs are fully worked out of them.

In the meantime you can use a version of Linux for all your computing needs. And who knows–you might end up liking it enough where it becomes the system you use most frequently.

Apple’s macOS Mojave and Microsoft’s Windows 10 October 2018 updates have been creating no small number of issues for users of both these systems.

As I’ve said on countless occasions, the bloatware that doubles for commercial operating systems these days is both complex and huge. Both of these factors can and do contribute to problems of varying degrees when users apply these upgrades to their systems.

Gone are the days when you could install OS upgrades and/or updates as soon as they were released and made available. Beta testing does not come close to fleshing out issues that can bring users’ systems to their knees–costing time and money when system updates go bad in a big way.

For better or worse, consumers are now beta testers. And since knowledge is power, knowing now there’s a pretty decent chance you will have issues installing the latest upgrade or update from Microsoft and Apple (than ever before), why would you chance it?

It’s like anything else, though. You want the latest and greatest!

I would suggest you can have both by just waiting a few weeks until these companies release the first update to their updates. Once the brave souls who unwittingly volunteer as beta testers have identified the scourges lurking that can plague any user’s system, then and only then can it be deemed largely safe enough to proceed with said bloatware updates yourself.

If you have to be on one of the latest and greatest operating systems in the interim, you can try Zorin OS. It’ll take a lot less time and you’ll be up and running in a fraction of the time it would take to install either Windows 10 or macOS Mojave from scratch.

The larger issue

Having made a recommendation for something you can try other than Apple or Microsoft OS solutions, I can now suggest to both Microsoft and Apple that they should be at least a little bit anxious over the state of their desktop computer operating systems moving forward.

We know Apple is a mobile phone and gadget company. If the Mac was once a shining light for the tech giant, its operating system was the crown jewel–simple, elegant and it just worked! We know the Mac has largely lost relevance in the Apple iUniverse. Accordingly, the quality of its OS has largely declined as the size and bloat has grown on every OS10.XX release. Features that fail to wow have superseded the importance of elegant, fluid design accompanying bulletproof up-time.

For Microsoft–the 20th century tech company that strives to succeed in a 21st century world, the future is predicated on Redmond’s stranglehold on the corporate sector continuing indefinitely. Windows 10 is running on everything that Windows 7 is not. The good thing is the business world does not consider what end users prefer using; the only consideration is for what works, is stable and affords the highest levels of cost-effective worker productivity.

We all get that high production equals big profit.

The larger issue for both Apple and Microsoft with respect to the desktop operating system environment, is what consumers will do.

Consumers have a choice. They want something that’s fast. And they want something they can rely upon to work almost all of the time.

Neither Apple or Microsoft is keeping up their end of the bargain here.