[Bug 332945] Re: [Jaunty] Update Notifier icon would provide useful status information / new update-manager behaviour is annoying

[Curtis Hovey]

** No longer affects: null

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Title:
  [Jaunty] Update Notifier icon would provide useful status information
  / new update-manager behaviour is annoying

Status in One Hundred Paper Cuts:
  Invalid
Status in “update-notifier” package in Ubuntu:
  Won't Fix
Status in “update-notifier” source package in Jaunty:
  Won't Fix

Bug description:
  I am referring to the removal up the update-notifier in the Gnome
  notification area.  The discussion of it is embedded in the thread
  headed by:

    https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-
  devel/2009-February/027416.html

  Specific messages worth reading are:

    https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027434.html
    https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027451.html
    https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027454.html
    https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027437.html
    https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027445.html

  Matthew Paul Thomas says that the desired behavior is:

  *   When there are security updates, Update Manager will open and show
      them (plus any other available updates) within a day.

  *   When there are non-security updates, Update Manager will open and
      show them *one week* after it was last opened (whether it was last
      opened manually or automatically, and regardless of whether updates
      were actually installed then).

  *   When there are no available updates, Update Manager will not open
      automatically at all.

  Desired by whom?  And where was discussion of this change that effects
  the entire Ubuntu community?  Because some percentage of users don't
  apparently understand that the notification area has meaning, we are
  not going to use it for updates?  Chow Loong Jin raised a valid point
  that if update notification is now done by opening the entire update
  manager program, perhaps evolution and similar should open their
  application UIs rather than use the notification area.  And there are
  concerns about unintended functional consequences of this ill-
  conceived change, discussed in the thread.

  Personally, I predict that opening the Update Manager window while
  people are working will piss off a lot of users when it happens, and
  may result in them wanting to disable automatic checking. Yes, that'll
  be highly desirable, won't it?

  In other words, this change should be corrected, and a notification
  icon should be displayed when updates are available.

  ------------

  The window currently opens far too often when security updates are
  available: this is because of bug 369198, which is awaiting testing
  before it can be fixed in Ubuntu 9.04.

  ------------

  To disable the new behaviour and get the old behaviour:

      gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch false

  (Take into account that this gconf change is not supported.)

  To have the update manager launch immediately when updates are
  available, use this:

      gconftool -s --type int /apps/update-
  notifier/regular_auto_launch_interval 0

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