Automatic and silent installation of security updates

[Daniel Robitaille]

Jay Camp wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-07-08 at 07:50 -0700, Daniel Robitaille wrote:
> 
>>I personally like the icons set that used to be found in Red Hat 9 and Fedora 
>>1 (not sure what they use nowadays):  the big green button when system is up 
>>to date, and big red pulsating icon when you need an upgrade.  Highly visible, 
>>and easy to understand from an user point of view.   And always present:  I'm 
>>sure a lot of inexperienced users lose the  update-manager notification area 
>>from their panel in Ubuntu, but don't even know it's gone.  You need an icon 
>>that is always there, when updates are there or not, to get the visual 
>>reminder that thing are "working" and updated and are being checked 
>>continuously by your computer.
> 
> 
> I disagree.  I take the stance that the user should be able to assume
> that updates are being checked for continuously and that the
> notification will only appear when their attention is needed.  

can an user assume this automatically in Ubuntu?  If you remove the update-notification icon from your panel, logout 
while saving your session, will it ever come back? I think the updates are then not visible to the user if you do that 
(but haven't tried this since early in the Hoary developmental cycle).  Will an user notice what he/she has done? 
There is no visual reminder that updates are being checked in Ubuntu until you get an icon telling you that updates are 
available to download, and that's not a frequent event in Hoary.  I think many users like the familiar sight of a little 
green icon that tells you that your computer is up to date, and the confort that icon brings.  Personally I don't need 
that reminder, but some do.


> The last thing we need is to go down the road of what I call Windows
> systray hell.  You know, those 10 things that pop up in the corner
> everytime somebody boots up Windows.

I think we are already getting there.  Looking at my Hoary desktop I already have notification icons for Gaim, iPodder, 
and Rhythmbox (when playing music files), plus the icon for updates (when they are available).  Add the volume control 
icon, mounted CD and/or USB drives, and weather icons, and I already have a wide flora of icons on my panel, most 
started automatically when booting up.



-- 
Daniel Robitaille