Comment 6 for bug 356152

So you seem to be saying that I installed something from Add/Remove and
that reset the 7 day clock, and therefore I didn't get any notification
about updates. Is that right?

If so, I think there is more to this than that. I very well could be
wrong, but I don't *think* I installed anything. What I think I may
have done was open Add/Remove to check to see if a certain app was in
our repositories.

But even if I did install something (it's definitely possible and I'm
sure you can tell from the logs - they are much more reliable than my
memory!), there wasn't a "oh, and by the way there are new updates.
Would you like to install them too?" message. If we gave that sort of
notice, then resetting the clock is perfectly acceptable. But without
that, to the user it is the equivalent of changing the desktop wallpaper
resulting in them not getting updates.

I completely understand if there isn't time to fix this, but I think it
is a bigger problem for the average user than you seem to. We have a
secret (to most users) new algorithm of update notification. And because
of bug #351484, it is confusing to the people who do take the time to
try to understand what's happening. And then on top of that, this bug
means that the user can take seemingly unrelated actions which impact
that (secret and/or confusing) algorithm.

The end result to the user is unpredictability and confusion, which I
think is the last thing we want. I think that will result in people not
trusting the system, feeling like it's random and therefore unreliable,
not installing updates, and generally having a poorer and potentially
less secure experience. (Hopefully without the world crashing to a
halt, given my dire predictions! ;) )