Update options: only show the last minor version for each major?

Here you can provide suggestions on how to improve the product, website, etc.
Post Reply
AaronD
Posts: 18
Joined: 30. Jan 2016, 00:11

Update options: only show the last minor version for each major?

Post by AaronD »

Maybe I don't completely understand the versioning philosophy, but I think it's a bit of a nuisance to be prompted about every minor release that doesn't seem to change much of anything from a user's perspective. My present understanding is that the minors are mostly bug-fixes and security patches to the new features that were added in each major, so they wouldn't be expected to be much different to a user.

So what if I could only be notified about the last minor version of each major? Of course, in order to say that, there has to be a major release already, or at least one planned as being next, and so the logic might be to trigger on each major release, but show me the previous minor release.

Given my present understanding, that would be the most secure and bug-free version of each feature-set, and I really don't mind "lagging" by that much.

Thoughts?
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Update options: only show the last minor version for each major?

Post by socratis »

I've never seen any update notification mechanism ignore the major revisions and going only for what the user believes should be the last good known update. Any real world examples?

You can always turn of notifications. And since you don't seem to be interested in the latest and greatest, you could do what I'm doing in my setups. Check if there are any updates manually:
  • I have a list of the installed software and its installation date (see below). And a series of bookmarks in Firefox that match the installed software. Broken in categories, no more than 15 per category.
  • Once or twice a month, I open all the bookmarks in tabs and check if there are any updates.
  • I never install an update that's not at least a week old to let the potential last minute bug show up before I become a beta tester. More time for system level related software, including the ones for OSX itself, my computer's main OS.
  • The above rule does not apply to VirtualBox and Firefox only. The former because I'm testing the latest and greatest, and the latter for security issues mainly.
  • Since I am logged in as a standard user, I do not have installation rights. Log out, log on as admin, do the installations, re-log on as me. Usually I do a reboot of the whole system. Once a month is good for the soul.
That way I have full control of the update process. Why? Because I have weird rules. And there is no way in the seven kingdoms that my rules would apply to another person, so, I just make my own update process. I can't possibly expect all of the software update mechanisms out there to read my mind... ;)

For example I can skip an update if I don't like it. Or I can go back if something breaks. Or I can dodge a bullet if something is infected (think of the Transmission booboo in Aug/2016). My computer, my rules, my responsibility. Yes, it may be a little bit more of a manual labor, but I've never regretted it.

Just an excerpt of my "InstalledSoftwareVersions.log", to give you an idea. I don't want to post the whole thing, it's about 1100 lines, but it definitely isn't that bad as it sounds. The whole update-checking of the system takes half the time than to do the actual installations:

Code: Select all

============================================================================
        ***  Last check: 2017-10-04  ***
        ***  Last check: 2017-09-11  ***
        ***  Last check: 2017-07-20  ***
        ***  Last check: 2017-07-15  ***
...
============================================================================

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apps
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blender         2.74            2015-03-31
                2.76b           2015-11-03
                2.77            2016-03-19
                2.77a           2016-04-06
                2.78a           2016-09-30
                2.78b           2017-02-08
                2.78c           2017-02-28
                2.79            2017-09-12 <--
GIMP            2.8.10          2013-11-29
                2.8.14          2015-01-02
                2.8.16          2015-11-21
                2.8.18          2016-07-14
                2.8.20          2017-02-01
                2.8.22          2017-05-11
GR dictionary   1.1.0           2010-01-24
Inkscape        0.91            2015-01-30
                0.92            2017-01-01 <??
                0.92.1          2017-02-13 <??
LibreGreek      20121220        2012-12-20 *
LibreOffice     4.3.7           2015-04-25
                4.4.4           2015-06-30
                5.0.4           2015-12-17
                5.1.1           2016-03-03
                5.1.2           2016-04-07
                5.1.3           2016-05-12
                5.1.4           2016-06-23
                5.2.1           2016-09-08
                5.2.2           2016-09-29
                5.2.3           2016-11-03
                5.2.4           2016-12-22
                5.3.0           2017-01-28
                5.3.1           2017-03-08
                5.3.2           2017-04-06
                5.3.3           2017-05-10
                5.3.4           2017-06-17
                5.4.1           2017-08-31
MoneyManagerEx  1.2.5           2016-01-25
                1.2.6           2016-03-06
                1.2.7           2016-07-07
                1.3.1           2017-01-14
                1.3.3           2017-03-04
...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fonts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DejaVu          2.35            2015-05-17
                2.36            2016-07-14
                2.37            2016-07-30
Droid           1.00            2009-01-09      Android < 4.x
FreeFont        20120503        2012-05-03      GNU
MyriadPro       2.062           2010-09-11      
Noto            1.0.4           2014-09-12      Serif are 1.0.5
                1.0.6           2015-09-28      Serif are 1.0.7
...

...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Virtualization
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
VirtualBox      1.6.6  ()       2008-09-02      No ExtPack *DOES NOT INSTALL*
                2.0.12 (53697)  2009-10-09      No ExtPack *DOES NOT INSTALL*
                2.1.4  (42893)  2009-02-16      No ExtPack *DOES NOT INSTALL*
                2.2.4  (47978)  2009-05-29      No ExtPack
                3.0.14 (58977)  2010-03-18      No ExtPack
                3.1.8  (61349)  2010-03-25      No ExtPack
                3.2.18 (89859)  2013-10-11      No ExtPack
                3.2.20 (91540)  2014-01-10      No ExtPack
                3.2.22 (92810)  2014-03-14      No ExtPack
                3.2.26 (95036)  2014-07-15 *    No ExtPack
                4.0.20 (89853)  2013-10-11
                4.0.22 (91544)  2014-01-10
                4.0.24 (92803)  2014-03-14
                4.0.26 (95035)  2014-07-15 *
                4.1.28 (89849)  2013-10-11
...
Come to think of it, I'm due for a system update... :D
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
AaronD
Posts: 18
Joined: 30. Jan 2016, 00:11

Re: Update options: only show the last minor version for each major?

Post by AaronD »

Wow! I did not know about the Transmission booboo. I've heard (theoretical) discussions about people hijacking Microsoft Update (imagine what *that* could do!), but nothing else, and to my knowledge it hasn't actually happened. (yet?)

As for real-world examples, I don't actually know of any; I just thought it'd be a really good option for which the logic wouldn't be all that complicated. (at least superficially; maybe there's a deal-breaker in the background like the host-clipboard to guest-keyboard idea)

I've thought about manual-updating (if it ain't broke, don't fix it), but then it gets horribly out-of-date and I don't know what kind of bugs there might be in features that I don't use until it's way out of support. So to get any help at all, I'd need to update to something that *is* supported, learn that, fix what the update broke across several major revisions (if I can even do the same things anymore)...all when I have a project due! So I'd much rather have an automatic reminder to install something useful when I have that debugging time. Otherwise, it just never gets done unless I'm forced to at the least opportune moment.
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Update options: only show the last minor version for each major?

Post by socratis »

AaronD wrote:maybe there's a deal-breaker in the background like the host-clipboard to guest-keyboard idea
I believe that this particular feature will eventually make it, I never lose hope! ;)
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
Post Reply