Comment 202 for bug 332945

I also think this is not a good decision. Windows that pop up are never good, no matter for what purpose and whether they are pop-ups or pop-unders. As Osliner I too explained everybody how to update their system if the red notifier showed up, and that worked well for them. Personally I also like the old system.

 1. I usually do not update immediately if I am in the middle of something but instead wait until I have time.
 2. If a windows opens out of my control then I consider that a loss of freedom.
 3. I would probably click away the window and wait with the update until I have time for it.
 4. If there is no further notification I will most likely forget about the update (thus the need for a permanent icon)
 5. There is a similar thing on windows when after the update process the restart notification pops up every 5 min. to remind me that I have to reboot. I have been hating that ever since it has been introduced. I know here the situation is less obtrusive but still comparable. And I do not like it.
 6. I can not understand the discussion about tasks not belonging into the notification area. For me the notification area has 3 purposes:
 * First it is a place to quickly access running applications (like Skype or Pidgin) which I do not want to have in the foreground all the time.
 * Second it is a place to make changes to (interact with) the system, like volume control (or graphic control etc.) and get feedback from the system (like Battery status, system status).
 * And third it is a place holder for things that need my attention (like available updates, required reboots and restarts).

So the notification area as the name says does some important things: It gives notifications to the user and lets the user interact with them (For example the Pidgin icon notifies me if I'm online or not and lets me quickly call the main window to chat with my friends or change the online status when I am offline).
UNLIKE the new notification system it is a way for PERMANENT notification and interaction where as the new notification systems intention is for NON PERMANENT notifications for which it does not matter if the uses notices them or not, like volume change, wireless connection, display brightness. If the user misses one, It does not matter usually.
Also the new notification system was deliberately designed to be non interactive which is good. However If there is a state in the system that does not only require us to inform the user ONCE but PERMANENTLY then the new notification system is not the right thing (it can still do the FIRST notification), instead we need something in the notification area.

Now If you really think that some users (mostly those that do not care about how their system works and who are not experts), then I suggest doing the following:

 1. I would no matter what restore the icons in the notification area (update available, restart required, package manager working etc, everything that belongs to this system).
 2. The update manager can still appear the first time there is the need for an update, but then the user should explicitly be informed about it and be given the choice whether he wants to have this window pop up automatically or not.
 3. Add an option in the Software sources->Updates tab. Like:
   [ ] Automatically display update manager every 7 days if updates available.
   [ ] Automatically display update manager every 24 hours if security updates are available.
   These can be unchecked by default and the user is queried the first time updates manager is opened.

@Mark: I think the reason why people are so upset about this change is not because of the change itself but because this change violates a very important believe of the Linux community: <b>That you always have a choice."</b> There has just been announced the <a href="http://video.linuxfoundation.org/video/1106">winner</a> of the Linux Foundations ad competition. The most important message is: "Do you know you have a choice?" and I think many feel they didn't have a choice here.

If you want to do this. Then do it in a way that gives people the option to keep the old behavior (without doing some hacks on the CLI).