Windows 10 will upgrade your computer at any time of the day without your consent. A med school student friend of mine has to take tests on her computer. 15 minutes before the test, Windows 10 was updating and rebooting.
Found out, unless you have the pro version, you can't even tell Windows not to do that. You can only set a period of time where Windows will do it (like 2 am) so it doesn't do it at more inconvenient times.
OS X upgrades are worse, in my opinion. For any given version, Apple just nags me to install it. But if I go from major version to major version, suddenly selling my MBP gets complicated, because I can only install the version that it came with after I wipe it. It's up to the person who buys it from me to log in to Apple and update the OS to a more recent version.
Then there's iOS which nags you constantly to install updates that have been known to brick some devices...
I have home edition, it is set to reboot in the middle of the night. The laptop goes to sleep or hibernates when I go to bed, one or the other, the update is still pending when I start the laptop in the morning. Updates can be put off indefinitely, if this is the normal pattern.
>But if I go from major version to major version, suddenly selling my MBP gets complicated, because I can only install the version that it came with after I wipe it.
That isn't true. You can install a fresh copy of the most recent OS.
You can, but that requires you to log in with your Apple ID and password. Or to download (with your Apple ID and password) a copy and create an installation thumb drive.
El Capitan definitely doesn't require you to create an account OR enter a credit card number, I've done it on plenty of machines. Obviously you have to create an account if you want to use iCloud, but you can simply choose not to.
I believe you, but the OS told me to upgrade to El Capitan using the App Store and the App Store told me I had to log in to iCloud and iCloud told me I had to give it a credit card. I believe you that there is a way around it, but there is also a way around getting upgraded to Windows 10. If the OS doesn't tell the average user about it, it's not part of the UX.
Windows 10: will upgrade your computer while you are sleeping without consent
OSX El Capitan: free upgrade requires you to create an account and type in your credit card number