Adobe To Roll Out Monthly Patches

Adobe will take a page from the playbooks of operating system vendors like Microsoft and Apple, and shift to a monthly patch schedule in 2006.

Adobe, which just wrapped up its acquisition of Macromedia, will release security updates monthly, rather than on the current ad hoc basis both firms now use.

Microsoft went to a monthly schedule over two years ago, and Apple has been using much the same since the beginning of 2005.

"Microsoft's method of patching is [still] the exception," said John Pescatore, analyst with Gartner, in an earlier interview. "But their way is the way everyone will eventually have to go. Customers will demand it."

Details of the monthly patch process are still being worked out.

Both Macromedia and Adobe have had several notable security vulnerabilities in the past several months. Macromedia, for instance, patched its Flash media player twice in the span of two weeks in November, while Adobe had to plug critical holes in its Reader and Acrobat products in late August.