From computerworld.com: "But cumulative also refers to the gestalt of Windows 10 updates: They're entities that cannot be broken into their parts."

"Gestalt???" Shortcoming, or some other term yes, but gestalt? Hmmmm... Am I missing something since I'm not a techie?

"Gestalt" means an organized whole that is more than the sum of its parts. Its use in this context seems unremarkable.

I've long assumed that the parts of a gestalt WERE capable of being separated from the whole. Am I wrong?

In my view you are correct, Geoff.

I think arnie's right. The OED Online says:

quote:

A ‘shape’, ‘configuration’, or ‘structure’ which as an object of perception forms a specific whole or unity incapable of expression simply in terms of its parts (e.g. a melody in distinction from the notes that make it up);

In the context of the citation in post #1, isn't Windows 10 still Windows 10 if a particular function is deleted? If so, is it a gestalt? I'm still unsure.

A number of points.

1. I think it's referring to the Windows 10 UPDATES as a gestalt rather than to Windows 10 as a whole because the updates can't be broken apart and have to be installed all together.

2. I don't think it's a very good use of the word. There would be far better, and clearer, ways to express it.

3. Windows 10? Now I understand. We are using the little known definition of "Gestalt" - pile of steaming horse excrement.

I do see that the dictionary defines gestalt precisely how arnie has stated the definition. Here is another definition I found, and this is more the way I've seen it used: "A configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that it cannot be described merely as a sum of its parts." In this one, it can't be described merely as the sum of the parts, but it doesn't say the part is more than the sum of its parts. One way that I've seen it used is if a patient is getting a lot of pills. When you look at them altogether, as gestalt, you can immediately see that they are right. Of course, for patient safety, we have to look at them individually too.