[aur-requests] [PRQ#1301] Deletion Request for update

[Colin Keenan]

I disagree that it's necessary to merge pacnew files, read the front page
news, or read install messages on updating already installed software. I've
been intensely using Arch for a year and a half now. On my own machine,
which I turn off several times a day, I have a script that automatically
runs updating the system every time I turn it on (several times a day). I
rarely merge pacnew files and when I do, it often leads to problems I would
not have had if I had simply left them alone. I never read install messages
that occur during a system update. I don't read the frontpage news unless
there's a problem after an update, and then it has never had anything
relevant to tell me. I've only experienced update issues a couple of times
in the past 18 months, mostly early on. The last issue happened just in the
past couple of weeks, didn't stop me from doing anything but looked ugly,
and resolved itself after a few days when updates to the Xfce dev packages
came through.

The people I'm doing installs for won't ever be able to solve any real
issue with their computer and will therefore come to me everytime. I've
tried other solutions to getting them to update their system, and they
simply don't do it. Originally I was trying to use the auto-update script,
but discovered it's not a robust script and needs to be tweaked for each
machine and only really works properly on machines with a fast processor
and SSD. That's why I never put it in the AUR. This super simple script and
desktop file, when put on a launcher for the Xfce panel, makes updates
every bit as simple as in any distro, and they do at least see what's
happening whether or not they ever pay attention.

My own experience on Arch tells me there's no real problem doing regular
system updates without understanding everything that's going on. When
there's a problem, they will come to me and I'll take a look at the pacnew
files and pacman.log etc. They don't need to know how to do that and more
importantly, don't really seem capable of using a computer at that level.
On the rare instance they need new software, they will also reach out to me.

Why didn't I give them Ubuntu? Because Arch actually seems to have less
issues than any other distro I've tried, and because for some reason, I'm
having 100% success installing Arch while experiencing a lot of trouble
installing Ubuntu. It just saves me time to install and maintain Arch. Even
though Ubuntu doesn't expect you to manually mess with configuration files
or read install notes etc., it has more issues on updates than if you just
update Arch ignoring all that.

On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 2:33 AM, Lukas Fleischer <archlinux at cryptocrack.de>
wrote:

> On Sat, 01 Nov 2014 at 00:47:30, Colin Keenan wrote:
> > Please do not delete my package in the AUR, 'update'. Although the script
> > contains only one line of relevant code that could better be done with an
> > alias, the package also contains a desktop file which can easily be put
> on
> > a panel or other launcher for one-click updating similar to a GUI. When
> > installing Arch to other people's computers, people who may not be all
> that
> > comfortable with the command line, it's much easier for me to install
> this
> > update package for them than to find and copy the script and desktop file
> > onto their computer.
> >
> > The idea behind this package is to add the desktop launcher to your panel
> > (for example the Xfce panel), and then just click on it when you want to
> > update your computer. The user just enters their password when asked for,
> > and the rest is done automatically (unless it takes so long that another
> > password entry is required). By making updating as easy as possible,
> users
> > will update more frequently.
> >
>
> This sounds like a bad idea. You should not run `pacman -Syu` (or even
> `yaourt -Syu`) unless you know what you are doing. Arch Linux quite
> often requires manual intervention. If people blindly run `pacman -Syu`,
> they will not read (or not understand, at least) install messages, they
> won't merge .pacnew files and will not take care of what is mentioned in
> the frontpage news. By using yaourt, they will probably also install AUR
> packages without reviewing the PKGBUILDs (I never used yaourt myself, so
> I might be wrong here).
>
> > The script and desktop file are so simple that anyone can see it's safe.
> > What would be the harm in leaving it in the AUR?
> >
> > On Fri, Oct 31, 2014 at 4:24 PM, <notify at aur.archlinux.org> wrote:
> >
> > > karol_007 [1] filed a deletion request for update [2]:
> > >
> > > A package is a bit of an overkill for this oneliner.
> > >
> > > [1] https://aur.archlinux.org/account/karol_007/
> > > [2] https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/update/
> > >
> > >
>
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