Linux Mint's Update Manager To Encourage Users To Apply Security Updates

[caligula]

The problem with updates is, a noobie cannot even boot a bricked system. All work will be lost. Backups? Let's be honest, nobody does backups.

[stormcrow]

Live patching isn't always an option I think. Sometimes you really do need to reboot.

But then I guess we almost never reboot our phones, so maybe it's not so bad to just keep running that kernel?

Don't know what phone you use, but both Android and iOS require a reboot on update, and with Android that's monthly if the phone properly follows Google's monthly security updates. It's not unreasonable to require reboots for security purposes. If you're a user that's so severely put out because your 200+ tabs on your browser need reopening on reboot, then maybe you need to rethink how you work in a security sensitive modern environment. Everyone is a potential target for cybercriminal gangs from low value spam engines, to components of DDoS weapons, to high value ransomware and APT targets. There is no legitimate excuse for an Internet connected computer not to be kept up-to-date, and Linux (nor MacOS) is no longer below the radar.

[danmcgrew]

From the Linux Mint Blog referenced by Michael Larabel--

"...In the next release the manager won’t just look for available updates, it will also keep track of particular metrics and be able to detect cases where updates are overlooked. Some of these metrics are when was the last time updates were applied, when was the last time packages were upgraded on the system, for how many days has a particular update been shown…
In some cases the Update Manager will be able to remind you to apply updates. In a few of them it might even insist..."

Spying (sorry, I'll use the euphemistic word--) TELEMETRY, anyone?

Looks like Linux Mint really has become nothing more than a re-spin of Ubuntu.

Just use Ubuntu; at least it's supported to some degree (you did know that the gentleman responsible for maintaining and developing Timeshift has quit doing that. don't you?
Of course you do.)

[Charlie68]

Don't know what phone you use, but both Android and iOS require a reboot on update, and with Android that's monthly if the phone properly follows Google's monthly security updates. It's not unreasonable to require reboots for security purposes. If you're a user that's so severely put out because your 200+ tabs on your browser need reopening on reboot, then maybe you need to rethink how you work in a security sensitive modern environment. Everyone is a potential target for cybercriminal gangs from low value spam engines, to components of DDoS weapons, to high value ransomware and APT targets. There is no legitimate excuse for an Internet connected computer not to be kept up-to-date, and Linux (nor MacOS) is no longer below the radar.

Fully agree ! It is irresponsible not to keep your systems up to date and there is no excuse.

[fafreeman]

Tell me about it. I built my PC day before yesterday, first custom build ever, and the Windows portion of the setup sucked so bad.

Manjaro disk from my old PC started up just fine, did verbose updates and told me every file updated and changed, after that I tweaked a few packages here and there due to the slight arch changes (Intel CPU to AMD APU), rebooted, and went on about my business. Took about 15 minutes start to finish.

Windows, OTOH, decided that it wanted to run a silent update while silently configuring new hardware while my system was starting up. Just constant disk thrashing for about an hour or two while I'm waiting on the usual system tray crap to load and I was finally prompted for a reboot that took 30 minutes and consisted of a screen, a Windows logo, and a spinning circle. Finally did the final touches and was done playing sys admin. Took about three hours start to finish.

or windows installing graphic drivers at the same time from windows update while you too are installing graphic drivers... forced updates and silent updates are the worst thing possible. if you want people to update, then you have to make sure the updates don't brick systems or radically change stuff. a lot of people are worry of updates because developers have soured the waters.
i hate updating windows because its a game of russian roulette. after the whole "have cortana disabled, this update is going to cause 100% cpu usage then" bug i'm paranoid myself. same with my graphic drivers too. there's a reason why people downgrade so often. fixes one thing, creates two new problems.

[Alexmitter]

I love automagic updates, it should be available in any distro (of course, verbose and with detailed report). 3 years Fedora user.

Fedora just has the best auto updates so far. It does not get in my way at any time and is simply done as part of the shutdown process if even I want it to update then. No weird update utility like on ubuntu, clean offline updates, done in no time. It just does not bother you.

Same for Mobian on my Pinephone that uses the same infrastructure.

(It seems that you can also now use offline updates on Ubuntu, what a time to be alive)

[Flaburgan]

Fully agree ! It is irresponsible not to keep your systems up to date and there is no excuse.

It is irresponsible to drive your car without checking the engine, breaks, etc regularly. When was the last time you did it?

[Vistaus]

It is irresponsible to drive your car without checking the engine, breaks, etc regularly. When was the last time you did it?

I don't know the rules of every country, but here in the Netherlands, certain car checks are mandatory in order not get fined. And a yearly mandatory check by a garage on top of that. And given that you're possibly endangering other by not checking your car, I'd say it's wise to do those checks.

[Charlie68]

The law requires cars to be overhauled after a certain period.
But I don't understand what it has to do with it ... keeping your PCs updated, at least with security updates, is a matter of common sense! If you really are afraid that the update will break your system, make a backup, some distributions like openSUSE do it automatically and in case of problems, you can cancel the update.
So there is no excuse, if you don't do it it's just because you don't want to do it and you are putting yourself and others in danger.

[plonoma]

The Linux Mint project posted this morning their February 2021 monthly report. In there they outlined some of the pending Update Manager work to encourage users to update. "In the next release the manager won’t just look for available updates, it will also keep track of particular metrics and be able to detect cases where updates are overlooked. Some of these metrics are when was the last time updates were applied, when was the last time packages were upgraded on the system, for how many days has a particular update been shown...In some cases the Update Manager will be able to remind you to apply updates. In a few of them it might even insist."

These are some nice ideas but to make users update more they should do the following:
If you do make the Update Manager spy on the user: Make the Update Manager learn from the activity patterns when the user doesn't use the computer.
Have a calendar to help it notice patterns. Weekly patterns, monthly ones, annual ones.
But also allow users to turn activity pattern learning off.
Schedule updates to those user activity-free days.
When it's time: Startup, update, shutdown, (restart, update, repeat,) finish updating the computer without the user intervention.

Set users to slowest/least updates by default. So power and advanced users take the risks more.

Allow users to manually input desired or to be avoided dates and times, repeating patterns and non-repeating time slots, for updating.
Include a few default patterns with calendar function for weeks, months, a year.
Patterns should include: student, 9to5 job, student & 9to5 job, night work, custom and other stuff.
Due to work from home and Zoom classes, those profiles should come with toggles for indicating that.
Default should be student & 9to5 job (allow combining templates).
Allow users to choose a pattern as a template to be treated as a base with modifications, storing reference to the base/template together with modifications.
Default in patterns updates not during night when people try to sleep to avoid noise and light disturbing their sleep.
Allow users to choose this during or after installation and make changes from Update Manager after installation.

This and other maintenance tasks could be scheduled with some sort of maintenance manager. This Maintenance Manager could maybe have it's own spot in system settings. Maybe all software updates on a system could be optimized for the user with this too.

This should make it easier for users to stay updated without updating getting in their way. For most users most of the time anyway.