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Microsoft ahead of Apple, Ubuntu in OS update reliability

During the second quarter of 2008, Windows Update was always available, Apple's was not far behind, and Canonical's Ubuntu lagged by comparison.

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

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 percent 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.