getut: By saying "If people are too unaware to investigate a new icon on
the tray or to ignore it for months after it shows up, they deserve a
compromised machine", you are -- though I know you don't intend this --
effectively saying that a majority of people who use a computer deserve
a compromised machine. I know this can be terribly difficult to
understand for people who are interested in every detail of what's on
the screen. You think: "How could anyone possibly not notice the icon?
And when they do notice it, how could they possibly not wonder what it's
for?" Alas, most humans don't work that way; they're ruthlessly goal-
centered, and learning the details of operating systems is not one of
their goals.

mac_v, James Iry: There is already a mechanism for windows to request
attention, and the updates window uses it whenever it opens
automatically. Maybe that mechanism needs a more prominent presentation,
but that should really be a separate discussion.

Uwe Schilling: You basically restated my point -- assuming that people
will see a window that looks like the updates window, and behaves like
the updates window, but be able to tell that it's fake solely because it
opened automatically. I think that's quite unrealistic, because it would
require a much better memory for past actions than people usually have.
For example, if you open Update Manager yourself but get a phone call
and have to switch to another task in a hurry, and don't return to
Update Manager until the next day, you may have no memory of opening it
the previous day. (Expecting people to then close it and reopen it,
*just in case* the already-open instance was a fake one, would be even
less realistic.)

mb_webguy: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-
devel/2009-February/027568.html>

bdoe: If there are security updates waiting in the archive and Update
Manager doesn't open within a day, please report a separate bug about
that. However -- and I apologize in advance if this affects your sleep
-- it has never been true that "if there's no icon up there indicating
important security updates, then my system is truly secure". A
vulnerability may be found and exploited by bad guys before being found
by good guys; once it is identified by good guys, it may be hours before
it is fixed in a way that the developers are confident won't break
anything else; after that, Launchpad may take up to an hour to rebuild
the fixed package (depending on the complexity of the package); after
that, there may sometimes be an embargo of hours or days agreed with
other OS vendors; after it is released from embargo, it will be between
0 and 60 minutes before the new package is published in the Ubuntu
archive; and after that, it will be between 0 and 24 hours until your
computer next checks for security updates. This is all true regardless
of whether that last step involves a notification area icon or the
updates window itself.

Chauncellor: If I was turning a deaf ear to comments, I would have long
since unsubscribed from this bug report.

-- 
[Jaunty] Update Notifier icon would provide useful status information
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/332945
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.

-- 
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs