the linked 2009 wired article quotes adobe saying 'yeah we don't see the need to have an always-on updater process'
fast forward to 2020 when (1) adobe has this and (2) they still email me every so often to remind me to install their software which (3) I have installed and been using
I think life would be better if there were a 3rd-party update service that wasn't trying to also own marketing + distribution (i.e. take 15-30% of the sale and also maintain platform dominance). A tool that was 'just updates' so my other software doesn't get to install a rootkit.
Like homebrew maybe? ;-)
homebrew is non-commercial and updates on-run, rather than in the background, but frankly yes
if they had a commercial offering I think they have the brand trust to make this work
They have that trust because all the software installed by homebrew is open source.
Personally I use homebrew-cask to manage almost all applications and their updates, turning auto-updating off in almost all apps. That way I am in control and can update when it is convenient, know if an update broke something, etc.
Edit, using: