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Re: Updates on Login (was: Re: [Fwd: Update manager])

 

My roll on the Canonical Design and User Experience team is to make Ubuntu the most enjoyable to use operating system in the world, so I hope you can forgive me for making "[it offers a] more pleasant experience" the main thrust of my argument.

I am not decidedly in favor of updates at GDM over updates at any other point in time. I am just trying to get us to think more broadly about solutions to the update problem, and not to jump to premature conclusions.

I can offer other arguable points of merit for updates at GDM:

(1) (This is completely subjective, but my personal experience does include the experiences of others, and is valid in itself) I often feel less rushed and stressed when booting my computer as opposed to shutting it down. When I log in, I wait for applications to load, my mail to download, my music player to start, etc. When I shutdown, I currently enjoy the luxury that my computer turns off immediately with no fuss; currently, shutdown does not involve waiting.

(2) Think of portable computer users (laptops and netbooks). They nearly always have more battery available at boot than at shutdown. In fact, many users shut their laptops down *only* when they are forced to due so due to an empty battery. We never want to initiate updates on insufficient power.

(3) Smaller cognitive burden. Think about the worker. At the start of the day, you boot your machine, grab some coffee, and return to your machine. At the end of the day, you just want to leave the office! Even if you knew you could leave something running on your machine and go home, it still might cause a lingering uncertainty (did it ask me for confirmation? Was there an error? Is my computer still on right now? Is it logged in?!)

Most of us would be perfectly comfortable initiating an update on shutdown, and walking away from our machine, but I'm not sure if less sophisticated users are similarly comfortable behaving this way.

Also, more and more devices running Ubuntu will be laptops and netbooks. We may want to focus more on those use cases, and less on the use case of a sedentary desktop.


David

tacone wrote:
People who auto-login or never restart can be handled differently.
Personally, I auto-login, so I would not use this feature, but let's not
think of gurus like us, who participate on Linux mailing lists, and let's
think instead about the average user, who might be made uncomfortable by
computers in general, and may be nervous about their first venture into
Linux.


The core of the idea is, at the face browser, there is a present icon when
you have updates already downloaded and ready to install. They might even be
unpacked already. Beside the present is a simple description like "13
updates available, requires restart. Click to update." The user either logs
in as usual, ignoring the icon (maybe it's at the bottom/corner of GDM), or
clicks the present. Clicking the present prompts for a password, and then
shows an elegant progress bar, installing the updates. If the updates
required a restart, the machine simply restarts, and our new 10 second boot
time brings the machine back up before the user even notices it's
restarting. We don't have to confirm shutdown, because nobody is logged in.
Then, the user logs in to her newly updated desktop.

There are drawbacks to this approach, sure, but do you honestly not see any
merit? I think it delivers a much more pleasant experience than asking the
user at shutdown. At GDM, the user is not in a hurry, and they can take a
moment to decide if they would like to update or not. Asking the user to
update at shutdown feels like a rushed decision; the machine is shutting
down, and you have a brief moment to either opt-in or opt-out of updates.

David, don't think I want to discourage you in any way. I'm pretty
happy with initiatives like yours.
But, of course, one has to see which advantages those effectively bring.

Frankly, seems to me that the only merit you cite ('more pleasant
experience') is highly subjective as it is the consideration that at
login the user is less in hurry than on shutdown. The hurry factor, by
the way, varies depending on the platform (desktop/notebook/netbook).
I'd frankly consider a netbook/notebook user always in hurry, and that
brings down both the login/logout alternatives. For a desktop, though,
the shutdown is nicer.

Sure everything can be ignored, but that also means that such feature
would affect a lower percentage of users, making it less compelling.
I also think that doing things at start up will require much more code
respect of the shutdown option and increased complexity in the
configuration panels (see for example the proposed configuration panel
that will be needed for handling the pop-under intrusiveness
http://tinyurl.com/koommq . are we sure we need that?)

A few more points:
- auto-downloading the updates is already there, but it's optional and
opt-in - and for a reason. I couldn't afford to use that in my current
situation for example (pay for bandwith). Slow connections may not
afford it. And so on.
- I think that making the user wait for uploads to complete before
login will lead to quite of a backslash, no matter if it's opt-in.
You're proposing opt-in to an undesiderable feature. I still would
have no problem with that, but I'm sure many people would not like it.
- I have the feeling it will be more difficult to code and would
re-use much less of the existing infrastructure.

As a side note, I don't like having update opt-in even on shutdown,
but for sure I think it would be much better than in GDM and may be
helpful for some.

Let me iterate it again, I don't want to bash you or your idea. I just
think it's not good and I encourage you to find some other good point
about it or come out with something different.

Stefano



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