[merlyn]

I haven't had any trouble installing VMware security patches (I've done plenty).

As to why there seems to be such an increase in security patches, its like the quote from Willie Sutton. That's where the money is.. The largest target gets the most attention.

Everybody has bugs. While you may hide under the radar with using some lesser known things, don't fool yourself thinking that there aren't holes the hackers can weave their way through.

[thaanpaa]

I don't remember exactly, but there were some issues where a security update would remove support for certain common (HP?) RAID controllers or something to that effect. So, if you're not careful, a security patch could potentially brick a server.