Re: On updates

[Matthias Clasen <matthias clasen gmail com>]

On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 8:01 AM, Joaquim Rocha <jrocha endlessm com> wrote:

We have already a somehow similar feature in GNOME Software called "download-updates". This setting tells plugins they should download updates during refresh, so the new versions can be later installed/deployed. Although I understand that for packages this is good because installing a version of a package-based app while the app is running can lead to problems, it is not good to base the whole design in this principle, especially taking into account we now have things like Flatpak that can be safely fully updated even if the apps in question are running.

I think that (at least) Flatpak should not have this distinction between download+update in GNOME Software (not shown to the user at least) since it's not at all how users think of updates, and that's also probably why phones don't do it like that either...

I exclude offline updates (OS upgrades) from here because those obviously need to be done in that way.

That is just an assertion. In your opinion, just how do users think about updates?

 

I have previously requested from Richard that we should be able to still show updates in GNOME Software that aren't downloaded (list of apps that have new versions) and this motivated having two plugin methods for adding updates: gs_plugin_add_updates, gs_plugin_add_updates_pending.

However, the latter (updates that aren't downloaded) is not called unless download-updates is false, and that's not great because with auto-updates, that setting should be on, but I'd still like to show the list of apps with updates to the user (even if they're not downloaded). Besides, having two methods to fetching updates seems overkill.

The original guiding principles for gnome-software have been:

- Don't make me (the user) wait

- Don't annoy me unless an action is ready to be taken

It is a fine line to walk between 'showing updates that aren't downloaded' and 'annoy me about something that isn't ready for action yet'.