[Bug 2047778] Re: Software Updater unable to cancel Ubuntu Pro upgrade

[Andrei Ionel]

Ubuntu Pro is a great service and it's nice that you can get it for free for 5 machines, but not everyone needs it even if you can get it for free. The problem with this is that less tech savy users are going to be pretty confused about this. Think about this, Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distros used by newbies and pros alike. When a person not well versed into the technicalities of it all is going to see that, they'll think they're actually getting features locked behind a paywall and a lesser experience unless they pay money, which isn't the case at all. But it doesn't matter, because that's the impression it's going to give. And even if you aren't a newbie, perhaps you just don't want Ubuntu Pro because you do not need it. Either way, I think the terminal announcement is fine, that's where tech savy users look either way, but the update manager advertisement (or notification, however you would call it) isn't a good look. I don't think it's ill intent, after all Ubuntu Pro can be used for free up to 5 machines, but that comes off the wrong way to most people. Most people don't want to be reminded that they're supposedly missing out on something. 
Perhaps just a slide in the welcome tour that briefly explains Ubuntu Pro would be enough to inform users of its existance and also let them opt in if they wish to do so. But the current methods of advertising it may come off as hostile.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to update-manager in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2047778

Title:
  Software Updater unable to cancel Ubuntu Pro upgrade

Status in update-manager package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
   Every time I invoke Software Updater I get a list of Ubuntu Pro security updates, and a message at the bottom that for those updates I need to enable Ubuntu Pro, with only one other button to choose, "Remind Me Later".  I searched for Ubuntu Pro to find out what it is, and came to the conclusion that I do not want it;  but there seems to nowhere be any means to permanently reject its installation.  Every time I reboot the computer I get the same files offered again, and the only options again are to enable Pro or be reminded later, neither of which options reflects my will and desire.  Is this an option, as it seems to be dressed up to be?, or is it a MANDATORY upgrade?  My experience as a user is one of confusion.
    (I can still upgrade my packages through Muon Package Manager, though;  but Software Updater appears to have been rendered permanently useless by this persistent nag.)
    Perhaps this is very poor and misguided marketing trick;  rather than a software bug.
    What IS a bug, however, is the inability for a user to block a package or upgrade through the Software Updater interface.  This permanent nag with Ubuntu Pro points to a deficiency in Software Updater.  There ought to be a way to say NO to an upgrade in a way that sticks.

  Info:
  My computer is an old Lenovo T440 laptop.
  ~$ lsb_release -a
  No LSB modules are available.
  Distributor ID: Ubuntu
  Description:    Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
  Release:        22.04
  Codename:       jammy
  Using Lubuntu desktop.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/2047778/+subscriptions