I’m a little confused here with many of the posts.
It’s my understanding that after wading through this thread’s posts that if a user wants the Software&Updates gui they just need to install software-properties-gtk. Am I wrong on this?
And if I also understand correctly that it will be installed by default in several flavors. Again am I incorrect on this?
If the above is correct the gui is there for those that want it whether it be installed in Ubuntu manually or there by default if using one of several flavors.
I look at this way,a newbie won’t even know that Software&Updates exists so how can they miss what they don’t even know and in this day and age you can find out anything through a simple internet search and in the case of Ubuntu will more than likely bring you right to this Discourse where someone will tell you about Software&Updates.Just my opinion.
In my opinion the more options exposed via GUI the better, even if the user doesn’t fully understand it. The GUIs had confusing names but I feel like that could be changed. Name them “Drivers“, “Updates“ and “Update settings“ or something. This way when a user tries to troubleshoot their system they go online, find a command and hurt their system further than if they just clicked on something in the GUI app. Confusing options could be taken out of the GUI as well, like the ability to disable the Main repository.
Software & Updates also let you manage useful things like whether you want security updates only or all updates, and who knows whether that be integrated in the new solution that will come in the future. I don’t like getting rid of GUI when there’s no replacement yet
I have a suggestion, which I believe has not yet been considered in the various Ubuntu forums.
What if there was an offering of three (3) categories of applications:
Applications suited to the newbie, with lots of GUI, lots of guidance, lots of mouse-over, etc.
Applications suited to the “habituated” (not referring to advanced or experts).
Other Ubuntu-recommended which are included as default with the Distro installation (which would include everything else from the simplest to the most advanced)
Then, at installation, the User gets to choose which of those categories they would classify themselves as, and the installation process would install the correct Menu Categories and Application subsets accordingly.
Since that would facilitate the process of ensuring Application subsets that are Audience-targetted, does that seem like a reasonable approach?
… and if you really wanted to attract Windows ex-pats, you might even have a choice for Users to identify themselves as such, along with a suggestion of application alternates to various “prime-time” Windows applications.
It’s just a thought as to how to expand the market-share for Ubuntu on the desktop.
