In a fresh blog post, Linux Mint's leader Clem Lefebvre has written about some statistics on people running out of date software and warned people to ensure they're running updates.
While Linux users often claim they know what they're doing, they're smarter than Windows users and more (I've seen a lot of claims over the years…) plenty still seem to delay or just not run updates it seems. When you hear about new security problems all the time, it's never been more important to stay up to date. Especially your web browser, the last thing you want is to have that and your entire online life compromised!
In the post Lefebvre mentions that only around 30% of users updated their web browser in less than a week, although perhaps much more alarming is that between "5% and 30% of users run Linux Mint 17.x" which has not seen security updates for two years since it reached EOL (end of life).
0% of users should run Linux Mint 17.x! Anything above is not good, whether it’s 5% or 30%.
The actual statistics they have should be taken with your usual pinch of salt, as they vary depending on where you look but either way it's a big reminder to ensure your computers are up to date. Just being on Linux doesn't make you suddenly secure - remember that.
Perhaps it's not surprising though, with Linux Mint often recommended to complete newbies and older users trying out Linux. If you have done a setup for a friend or family member, perhaps give them a nudge about running updates eh?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I see your point about the update manager's tray icon design, but I was actually talking about the icon of a clipboard with an exclamation mark you only see when there's something that needs your attention besides normal updates. Those are handled by Mintreport, which is a separate tool. But now that I think about it, maybe it is actually the update manager that tells you about new Mint releases...The latest version might be a bit of an own goal on that front. Used to be, the little shield-shaped thingie would turn colour when it wanted more updates. Fairly noticeable shift, the whole icon would turn red. And I think it was green or blue when it was all up to date. Just now looked down at the icon; the current version is always white and when it wants you to update it just puts a little extra bob, a little orange something-or-other, at the bottom left of the shield icon, covering less than a quarter of it. Doesn't exactly pull the eye, I'm pretty sure I've tended to update less often since I installed the new version.Maybe there could be an app that pops up a window once there is a new version of the OS?Mintreport and its system tray applet do pretty much what you want. But I guess the tray icon is easy to ignore.
In any case, the point was that you are notified of new releases, but it might be a bit subtle. Nothing like a popup telling you that you should upgrade soon.
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