Notifying end-users when support is no more

[Conrad Knauer]

On 1/1/07, t u <towsonu2003 at gmail.com> wrote:

> >>>> I think our end-users who do not like to go out of their way to
> >>>> learn about what's going on in the community could really use
> >>>> such a feature.
> [snip]
> >>>> At the least, if it is do-able, for desktop users, you could
> >>>> change the background picture to something that says "upgrade
> >>>> because your current version will not get security updates
> >>>> within 1 month."... or maybe a pop up by update-manager? I
> >>>> suspect that server users are more security-savvy and don't
> >>>> need such intervention.
> >>>
> >>> I don't think that a large-window pop-up or changing the
> >>> background image is the way to go though; why not just a
> >>> notification area icon like when it informs us that updates are
> >>> available, with a balloon similar to how it informs us that a
> >>> restart is required?
> >>>
> >> +1 to that. When you click on the bubble, it should send you to a
> >> page telling you about how to upgrade and which version to upgade
> >> to (eg stable or LTS).
> >
> > Wouldn't it be better just to have it run update-manager and if they
> > need more info, they can click the help button or maybe offer a 'more
> >  info' button?
>
> Do you mean it should run "update-manager -c" (hence forcing them to
> dist-upgrade to a later release)? afaik, dist-upgrades still risk a
> broken system.

Is using the update-manager not the recommended method for upgrading?

> I kinda think you need to be intrusive (hence the pop up window -or
> changed desktop background- instead of a small bubble) but leave the
> final decision to them.

Pop-up windows just bring back bad memories from MS Windows ;-)

The bubble:

- would be familiar to Ubuntu users
- need not be tiny
- should produce a new bubble each reboot (or every certain time unit,
say once per day) thus being annoying enough to eventually get the
user to upgrade without being overly intrusive
- could get larger each new time it comes up ;)

Also, I would recommend that the icon in the notification area from
which the bubble extends not go away (even if they close the bubble)
until they upgrade.

CK