[Bug 1886970] [NEW] should be warned if major installed package not in upgrade.

[Harry Coin]

Public bug reported:

The clear, simple pop-up graphic advising of a new long term release can
lead to major upset with Ubuntu in a way that can be avoided, as
follows:

Just for the purpose of this wish: Let's call an installed package that
provides a capability of interest to the user that's optional, that is
to say not a dependency of anything, user-driven.

If an installed 'user-driven' package is not available in a new long
term release: it's reasonable to suppose an average user would be upset
if, trusting the cheery notice of new LTS release won't do 'anything
bad', their package-of-interest is mysteriously gone upon reboot.   It's
just a question of the extent to which Ubuntu wants to be friendly to
folks who think it's too much to comprehend the zooming console
screenfulls of 'lib*' and so forth being upgraded.

We know some major packages (where 'major' means the user went out of
their way to install it) arrive only as 'backports' for long term
releases, so accepting the LTS until those arrive when the prior version
is installed -- will be a loss.

There are lots of potential 'right answers', I think the only wrong
answer is 'do nothing'.  I call this a bug because going along with the
clear, obvious intention of the pop-up will in these cases leave the
user worse off as their chosen optional package will be gone though
you'd think that Ubuntu would have taken that into account before
presenting the 'it's all ready!' notice.

The case that bit me was freeipa-server, but there are many others.
Just dealing with repeated notices on consoles and pop-ups making me go
out of my way to turn them off seems, well, less user-friendly than the
standard Ubuntu keeps elsewhere.

** Affects: update-manager (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1886970

Title:
  should be warned if major installed package not in upgrade.

Status in update-manager package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  The clear, simple pop-up graphic advising of a new long term release
  can lead to major upset with Ubuntu in a way that can be avoided, as
  follows:

  Just for the purpose of this wish: Let's call an installed package
  that provides a capability of interest to the user that's optional,
  that is to say not a dependency of anything, user-driven.

  If an installed 'user-driven' package is not available in a new long
  term release: it's reasonable to suppose an average user would be
  upset if, trusting the cheery notice of new LTS release won't do
  'anything bad', their package-of-interest is mysteriously gone upon
  reboot.   It's just a question of the extent to which Ubuntu wants to
  be friendly to folks who think it's too much to comprehend the zooming
  console screenfulls of 'lib*' and so forth being upgraded.

  We know some major packages (where 'major' means the user went out of
  their way to install it) arrive only as 'backports' for long term
  releases, so accepting the LTS until those arrive when the prior
  version is installed -- will be a loss.

  There are lots of potential 'right answers', I think the only wrong
  answer is 'do nothing'.  I call this a bug because going along with
  the clear, obvious intention of the pop-up will in these cases leave
  the user worse off as their chosen optional package will be gone
  though you'd think that Ubuntu would have taken that into account
  before presenting the 'it's all ready!' notice.

  The case that bit me was freeipa-server, but there are many others.
  Just dealing with repeated notices on consoles and pop-ups making me
  go out of my way to turn them off seems, well, less user-friendly than
  the standard Ubuntu keeps elsewhere.

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