[Bug 1180899] Re: Update list hides important details

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Michael Terry and myself may share initials, but I'm the one to blame
for the design. ;-)

Containers get blamed for their contents. When we introduced Notify OSD,
people reported bugs against it about apps that had always sent too many
notifications. Gradually the apps were fixed. And when we introduced
Ubuntu Software Center, people reported bugs against it about packages
that had always been in the wrong category. Gradually the packages were
fixed.

Now with Software Updater, people complain about packages that have poor
synopses. Yes, and they always did. The example of Bazaar is a
particularly flagrant one: the name of the software is not "easy to use
distributed version control system", and it is not "bzr" (though that is
the terminal command), it is "Bazaar". <http://bazaar.canonical.com/en/>
The package is just wrong.

As long as package names can't contain spaces or capital letters, they
often won't be the actual name of the software. The most practical place
to put the actual name is in the synopsis, which is what Software
Updater shows by default.

I agree it would be nifty to have an optional column showing the package
name, as well as an optional column showing the version number. These
would probably be toggled from the View menu.

** Changed in: update-manager (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1180899

Title:
  Update list hides important details

Status in “update-manager” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Since Ubuntu Raring, update-manager no longer shows any useful
  information by default. I click the Update Manager icon in the
  indicator area, select “Show updates”, it shows a list of application
  names and “Xubuntu base”, with download size in the right-hand column.
  To see exact package names and changelogs, I have to expand the
  “Xubuntu base” node, expand the “Technical description” area and click
  through each package.

  This new display format is a regression for me. In Precise, the list
  was flat and displayed application names (package descriptions),
  package names and download size, all in the main list, which only
  required me to scroll through to see the list of updates and quickly
  decide if I want to update now or defer until a more convenient
  moment; in the new version, I am confused by multiple packages that
  have identical descriptions.

  As a user familiar with package naming conventions, I would like to
  see the package names and possibly versions (both installed and
  available), in the list of updates. On the other hand, the download
  size of each individual package is of low importance to me, as I have
  a fast and unlimited Internet connection.

  I therefore suggest that the list of columns should be configurable
  (even if via dconf-editor only), and that columns be added for package
  name, installed version and available version.

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