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List:       ubuntu-devel
Subject:    Re: Upgrade Notifications for Kubuntu and Ubuntu Studio
From:       Harald Sitter <sitter () kde ! org>
Date:       2022-09-08 10:28:46
Message-ID: CAEc+18F+bRdZt7wcgGE0gxY7HexZqVqJbz0QaAtGbrDRGZabHQ () mail ! gmail ! com
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https://invent.kde.org/system/distro-release-notifier may help

On Thu, Sep 8, 2022 at 3:09 AM Erich Eickmeyer <eeickmeyer@ubuntu.com> wrote:
> 
> 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
> 
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