[Bug 1180899] Re: Update list hides important details

[Yuri Khan]

Since I raised this issue eleven years ago(!), many important things
happened, among them:

* I migrated from Xfce to i3. As a result, I’m no longer receiving notifications about available updates in a way that prompts me to interact with update-manager.
* update-manager has become more annoying by displaying Ubuntu Pro updates even though I’m not subscribing.
* The command `apt list --upgradable` has become available and advertised by `apt update`.
* I adopted the habit of installing updates on weekends so as not to disrupt my working environment.

As a result, I no longer consider myself a user of update-manager and
not really hoping for it to improve enough that I could start using it
again, sorry, someone else will have to take it up from me.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1180899

Title:
  Update list hides important details

Status in update-manager package in Ubuntu:
  Opinion

Bug description:
  Since Ubuntu Raring, update-manager no longer shows any useful
  information by default. I click the Update Manager icon in the
  indicator area, select “Show updates”, it shows a list of application
  names and “Xubuntu base”, with download size in the right-hand column.
  To see exact package names and changelogs, I have to expand the
  “Xubuntu base” node, expand the “Technical description” area and click
  through each package.

  This new display format is a regression for me. In Precise, the list
  was flat and displayed application names (package descriptions),
  package names and download size, all in the main list, which only
  required me to scroll through to see the list of updates and quickly
  decide if I want to update now or defer until a more convenient
  moment; in the new version, I am confused by multiple packages that
  have identical descriptions.

  As a user familiar with package naming conventions, I would like to
  see the package names and possibly versions (both installed and
  available), in the list of updates. On the other hand, the download
  size of each individual package is of low importance to me, as I have
  a fast and unlimited Internet connection.

  I therefore suggest that the list of columns should be configurable
  (even if via dconf-editor only), and that columns be added for package
  name, installed version and available version.

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