Hi all, In Kubuntu and Ubuntu Studio, we rely on Discover and the Discover Notifier to run our GUI-based package updates. I don't care if you personally use apt periodically from the terminal, a case can be made that we expect our users to use Discover to do their updates.
Unfortunately, Discover is very, very flawed. It uses packagekit as its backend
and
its upgrader is designed to do one thing: upgrade packages. By comparison, the
Ubuntu Update Manager will give the user the option to remove unused packages,
unused kernels. and even notify of new Ubuntu releases, which is something that
Discover cannot do since it's built to be as distribution-agnostic as possible.
The lack of notification of new releases means when Release Upgrades are
enabled,
Kubuntu and Ubuntu Studio users are not notified whether their systems are set
to
upgrade to regular releases or LTS releases. This is especially problematic for
users
that simply don't know any better. We simply take for granted that we upgrade
our
systems, but new users don't necessarily know that they have to do that, and
they
don't necessarily pay attention to release announcements. We can't take that
for
granted that they automatically know that or are paying attention; it's not
basic
knowledge.
I have been seeing, with high levels of frequency, users showing-up in the
#kubuntu
chat with EOL systems, and users showing up running 20.04 not understanding
why they aren't getting a notification to upgrade to 22.04. We need to do
better
from a development standpoint and not let this happen. Users need to be
notified
from their systems, not externally.
Years ago, update-manager-qt was a thing, and I'm sure update-notifier-qt was
as
well. I decided to experiment with both. Unfortunately, I ran into a few
issues,
namely that neither exists anymore. Beyond that, using the GTK equivalents, I
ran
into a couple of other issues:
* update-notifier doesn't even show in the system tray when there are
updates
on my system, even after a reboot or a relog. Only if I force it by executing
it does it
show, but it doesn't go away after running update-manager.
* update-manager runs well, but it pops-up a kdialog while running (see
attached screenshot). Perhaps a bug/relic from old days, but definitely
something
that needs to be resolved.
Honestly, if these things can be resolved and the Qt equivalents can be
resurrected,
then it would be a huge boon to the users. Not only would they have a more
robust
upgrade management system, but they would also have the benefit of a Release
Upgrade notifier when those times come.
Of course, if someone has a better solution and would rather re-invent the
wheel,
then sure, but I don't think re-inventing the wheel is ever a good solution and
would
rather see collaboration and cooperation first, as is the Ubuntu spirit.
I added ubuntu-devel@ to this discussion since the packages in question are in
"main" and would require the help of some core devs to get some work done.
Thanks for hearing me out,
Erich
--
Erich Eickmeyer
Project Leader - Ubuntu Studio
Member - Ubuntu Community Council
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
-- ubuntu-devel mailing list ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
