PCLinuxOS Update Notifier

There's a lot of buzz at the forum with the recent addition of an Update Notifier. First, it is an excellent idea, and second, it is a valuable addition to PCLinuxOS but personally, I won't be using it. Fedora has something similar and so does Ubuntu (as far as I can remember), and they are irritably annoying. The taskbar balloon that states there are a number of updates available gets in the way.


*Thanks to Yoyo for the screenshot

I update my system every once in a while and I would like to be able to continue the way I do it ... the old-school way.

Of course, one doesn't have to install it but if someone unknowing who had set their system up close to perfect updates and wham, bang hose their install, that is going to be one sad thing. And I can just picture this user storming the forum and letting all hell loose. The easiest way to break a perfectly good install is by updating, unless of course one can remedy the loss with a recent reinstall of a remaster.

There are, naturally, the advantages. Take for instance Firefox and its attempt to patch the vulnerabilities that seemed to be more and more these days. Then there are the latest releases of packages ... wow, updating OpenOffice.org - would you have the patience?

What would be interesting to see added on the PCLOS Update Notifier is an IGNORE button. At least that would prevent those nasty indications that there are updates available on the repository. This sort of thing can make one feel lagging behind the latest and greatest apps available.

But if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

What is good in this world?

It's a hard battle on all fronts, but most of all let's not discuss politics. It's a tough rule but must be followed if we are to maintain peace and order, or what little of it exist. The recent blog post by Clement Lefebvre, main developer of Linux Mint was a big talk in the Linux circle. One such article from ExtremeTech called it The Great Linux Mint Political Train Wreck. All I could say was WOW.

What could something like this do for a popular Linux distro as Mint? Time will definitely tell but some say it is going to be bad for the distro. I don't know. Can something such as this take away the true merits of a fine distro? You bet it could.

But that's not really the big issue, is it? It is what's happening on the other side of the world. It shouldn't really be happening but it is, and no matter how bitter it is to accept, we have to because in my opinion, it is but a small part of the grand design.

On another playing field, it was reported that the Internet will become so saturated in 2012 that access to it will become so slow.

And the truth about The fundamental value of Internet access posted by Dana Blankenhorn on his ZDNet blog interestingly removed the "right" on "fundamental rights".

"People with no Internet connection, by definition, have less economic power in the 21st century than other people. They have less access to training, no way to see over the horizon (which is why TV has become so trivial). Their connections to the world are entirely local, except for those few people they maintain contact with by telephone or mail."

Connected the dots yet?