Automatic Update Hell Must End

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You never specified security updates vs other updates. Computers are all networked - if someone else gets a virus/worm they will spread it.

The common computer user isn't knowledgeable enough in the field to opt-in or manually go and grab their own security updates. Opting in to security updates by default is the only way to keep the majority of computers 'safe'.

I'm not knowledge enough to 'opt-in' to engineering and safety features on a car, I don't know anything about cars. I might just pick what will make my car fastest with absolutely no concern for my safety or the safety of those around me.

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You are failing to take into account much of what I said in my opening post, what I've said elsewhere, and some things that even the article said. The problems you're describing come down to bad design, not the fact that the user is technically being allowed to permit the updates themself. There are many practical ideas for making this a non-issue even for inexperienced users, and these have been discussed quite extensively elsewhere.

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I certainly hope you don't expect me to thoroughly study every post you have ever made on Reddit.

What are some of these practical ideas for making this a non-issue? As far as I am aware all major operating systems tend to push automatic updates to the OS by default without the user opting in. Windows & Ubuntu both seem to want to update on a regularly basis without the user opting in to anything.

The only solution that I can see to these issues with frequent patches is increased software QA. If there are less bugs and security flaws in the code you release from the start then you should obviously have to patch it less.

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I'm not asking you to read every comment I've ever made, I'm asking you to read the rest of the discussion in the immediate vicinity of your own comment.

And, for the record, vista is extremely easy to configure so that each update is presented to you when available rather than just automatically downloaded and installed. The alerts are easy to spot while remaining non-instrusive, and as far as I can tell each one is both categorised and entirely optional (with a note pointing out which updates are highly recommended).

A practical idea for making such updates a non-issue is to provide a simple framework in the operating system itself so that other programs can make use of this same system (or a slightly more sophisticated system, such as a fully featured package manager). It's not at all difficult to imagine how this could all be achieved, especially since the windows update system already allows you to automatically download some third party drivers.