Adobe is to begin releasing patches on a monthly basis, just like Microsoft. Starting within the next six months, the updates will cover most, if not all, of Adobe's products. Seemingly, this is in response to customer comments that the current system of ad hoc updates is not predictable enough.
Though most software companies have not moved to this kind of regular patching cycle, Gartner analyst John Pescatore believes it is likely to become an industry standard. "Microsoft has so many patches it really has developed the industry-leading way of dealing with them," he said. "We're definitely seeing many vendors moving to more predictable patch release."