Nah, your auto-updating desktop is fine. The software itself might evolve to an hands-off, evergreen-type of approach, but for now just a desktop daemon is fine. The reason keeping servers updated seems so non-trivial is that we visualize it in an ops sense like we're at work.
As confirmed by the lack of complaints about auto update in Windows 10. I mean, its not like updates ever break anything anyways.
I disagree. I've yet to encounter a system where automatic updates didn't sometimes break things. It's a nice theory, but in practice things break when you change things they depend on even when you're trying not to, and a lot of developers don't try that hard. Not to mention, sometimes you're dealing with design flaws that cause API changes, or programs relying on behavior that wasn't officially part of the stable interface. Auto-updating causes more problems than it solves.
Had to replace my dishwasher because the controls shorted out.
A motor or the display could just as easily burn out, but this article is about software problems, which you could fix with a workalike board.
I have family to think about: I don't have time to update my servers every time some new zero-day is fixed. I'd rather pay someone else to deal with those details. My five year old is growing up time with him is far more important that fixing security holes.