Question 2 of 3: Ubuntu - apt-get and Update Manager

[Billie Walsh]

On 07/22/2010 01:25 AM, Basil Chupin wrote:
> On 22/07/10 14:55, M Thomason wrote:
>    
>> On 22/07/2010 05:50, Basil Chupin wrote:
>>
>>      
>>> Does anyone know, please, why apt-get and the Update Manager behave in
>>> "different ways"?
>>>
>>> By this I mean: I used apt-get update/upgrade and I had upgrades
>>> installed; I then followed this up with the Update Manager "just for
>>> kicks" and found that it picked up more apps to be upgraded - and I
>>> don't mean just one or two but possibly 10. This was a while back and
>>> now I do this everyday - and it happens almost every time: apt-get does
>>> its job and then Update Manager finds more and all this within moments
>>> of apt-get finishing.
>>>
>>> Anyone have a suggestion why this occurs?
>>>
>>> BC
>>>
>>>
>>>        
>> Wild guess here as I only really use apt-get myself, is there any chance
>> Update Manager is picking up the things like Kernel updates that apt-get
>> usually holds back and needs a "dist-upgrade" for?
>>
>>      
> An intriguing thought - well worth consideration.
>
> It certainly hasn't done any kernel updates that I can recall - today,
> for example, there were no kernel updates - but after I read the above I
> looked at "man apt-get" and perhaps the more appropriate line command
> would be "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" rather than the simple "upgrade"?
>
> (I raise this question because of the fact that I keep reading almost
> everywhere that if you want to install something to "sudo apt-get
> install xxxxxxxx" or "sudo apt-get upgrade" -- but nobody seems to
> emphasise, "Why not use the Update Manager: System>Administration>Update
> Manager?".
>
> As the late Professor Sumner Miller here in Sydney, Australia, used to
> say on his TV science show, "WHY is this so?!" :-) )
>
> BC
>
>
>    

At great risk to life and limb [ putting on my asbestos underwear ]

IMHO, Most of the people that give the most help on the list(s) seem to 
be _long_ time Linux users. They are most comfortable using the command 
line to do everything. They don't trust these new fangled GUI's. I've 
been running Linux exclusively for about five years now and still 
consider myself a "noob". Being a "non-techie" type average home 
computer user I have virtually no command line skills and rely mostly on 
the GUI to deal with maintenance on a day to day basis. For me it works.


Perhaps because I don't have a lot of "skills" I seem to have far fewer 
issues with my system. 99.9% of my system is "right-out-of-the-box" 
installation of the released version. I let the updatemanager deal with 
doing it's job and don't interfere. I won't say my system is perfect. It 
does have some issues that fall into the "very minor annoyance" range 
rather than "my system is screwed" range. Those I can just live with 
until something comes along to fix them.

One thing I have noticed for quite a while now is that after a major 
upgrade or clean install it seems to take a couple weeks for the system 
to "burn in". [ I don't know how else to say it ] It's kind of like 
breaking in a new pair of shoes. At first things are kind of flaky but 
as time passes it just seems to settle in and works better and better.

-- 
"A good moral character is the first essential in a man." George Washington