Why do software updates (such as notable examples iTunes and iOS) now download the entire software every time, rather than just a small patch for the portion updated?

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I miss the days of software patches. The program might be 5 gb, but the update patch might be just a fraction of that, and it would apply itself to the installed files. Nowadays it seems more common (or at least increasingly) that the provider just makes you download the entire program in the latest version. So why is this done? It seems like a massive waste of bandwidth.

In: Technology

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

>It seems like a massive waste of bandwidth.

Because bandwidth and size are relatively negligible things these days. If a download is 5 gigs, what does it matter, that’ll only take a few minutes to download on most modern broadband that people have. But if you have to write software that does patches in bits and pieces that will increase the installation times, and greatly increase the complexity of the software itself.

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