Comment 389 for bug 332945

Il giorno dom, 14/06/2009 alle 04.56 +0000, bdoe ha scritto:
> Regarding automatic updates: I'm with Martin on this one; I believe it
> should be turned on by default

I am in all ways against automatic updates because I think the user must
be aware of when something delicate is happening. E.g. in the last week
before submitting a thesis, if the system is upgraded and for some
reason broken, you sure that I will come and kill some of you :) You are
all lukcy that I am not supposed to submit any more theses.

However in the current situation it is true that the only advantage of
the upgrades popup is ... letting the user decide wether to upgrade or
not. I don't think any ordinary user should even look at the list of
upgrades by default. It's nice to be able to see it but it's not really
necessary. Normal workflow is to see the window, and click on "upgrade
system" or whatever. So this is very close to automatic upgrades, the
only difference is to let the choice of the right moment to the users.

> . If you are on a pay-per-use Internet
> plan or a plan that places a cap on your usage, you can simply go in and
> turn off the automatic updates.

No, we should not do something potentially harmful by default. What if
an user does not know this and finds a 6000 euros internet bill at the
end of the month? Sure that'll be experience but I don't think they will
use linux anymore. Anything that may make automatic connections should
require user authorization. How to make this seamless is a possible
space for decision.

> I'm curious to know how update manager displays itself if the system
> needs to be rebooted after an update, and the user has already closed
> the window...
>

I think it will open a separate popup.

> Regarding forking Ubuntu: Does anyone know if Mint has/will have this
> "improvement"?

Mint has a completely different update manager, mostly focused on
avoiding risky updates by giving a lower priority to core packages like
the kernel. Strange, indeed, as typically these are the most urgent
packages to upgrade from the point of view of security. However, the
thesis here is that ordinary users can eventually do upgrades once in a
release cycle. There's no need to explain that many do not share this
view but it does not seem so likely that worms will affect linux desktop
systems in the near future.

V.