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[–] 7 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

His dad just needs to put a password when asked. It's a 6-years-old kid task updating on most Linux distro.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    That would be true if:

    1. A GUI software center is used (or if the said dad is comfortable with an interactive console application)
    2. The said dad actually realizes the importance behind updates. From my experience, many people don't.

    So, unless both of above are true, the dad will never (want to) update his system because "it works as is", sticking to old versions of software, never receiving bugfixes and neglecting security.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Most distro nowadays come with a gui to update. A pop up window appears asking if you want to update/upgrade. You can press "yes" and the password of the sudoer or admin user is asked. It has been like this for over a decade. For popular distros as Ubuntu or fedora over 15 years

    Is it different for your distro?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yes, probably because I stick with Arch and Slackware plus a lightweight environment. The only time I saw such a GUI was when I tried out Elementary just for fun.

    What I consider a problem is that the user can simply dismiss or disregard the updates notification indefinitely. I know many non-tech-savvy people who do not understand the importance of updates, so they would be inclined to do exactly that. That is why unattended upgrades are probably a better option in such cases.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago*

    The process is so simple that there is no reason to not do it. My wife is non-tech person, I installed ubuntu on her laptop and she's very happy because it's faster than windows. I have never updated it for her. She does it. Only thing I have done is the upgrade to a new ubuntu release

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You're a wise (wo)man. That is exactly the case. I've shown him how to do it in the GUI but he doesn't care to because, like you said, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Thank you for answering. I can relate to manually updating my parents' systems once in a while but at this point I'm seriously considering unattended upgrades (updating over SSH is also a good idea).

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