Comment 45 for bug 332945

 Matthew Paul Thomas wrote on 2009-02-23: (permalink)
"... clean up the notification area, and in particular to stop using it for things that it cannot actually recognizably notify people of ... but we think making update installation more obvious will make Ubuntu more secure for more people."

I agree 100% with the goal but have to disagree with the notification not being recognizable. For 90% of new users coming to Ubuntu will quickly recognize what the icon is used for (they have already received this training on the OS they are leaving). When I first started using Ubuntu a couple of years ago this was one of the first things I learned about and I really appreciated the first class update support that notified me on a daily basis and persisted until I clicked initiate the update. If you want to improve usability for novice users a streamlined Update Manager (with an option for the old UI with additional details) would be more appropriate than removing the notification.

I fully agree with other posters that a persistent notification is required.

I think launching Update Manager would be appropriate for any machine that was way out of date (user selectable times?) and for the users that don't understand or ignore the notification icon.

I also think it would be OK to allow the user to easily migrate to the new system as the bugs get worked out by electing to turn off the notification (but I do worry that a non-persistent notification is asking for big trouble and is a big regression in functionality). Once you find that only a small fraction of users still feel the need of the notification icon it could be gently removed, but not before a *superior* mechanism is in place. It's tough to innovate without ruffling feathers, but new features should be compelling enough to make users *want* to switch, otherwise stick with what works.