Why are there so many updates every few days?

Windows only update the core of the system... you don't have many updates because it don't care of the user installed apps.

In short on windows you must find by yourself the updates of any single app.

Ubuntu update all the system, i mean, all the installed applications and libraries... so in 5 minutes you have always the system and all the app updated, this is the main reason of frequently updates.

To get this wonderful functionality, the deb packages must be installed using the repositories archive, as usually we (and you) do.

Hth

I have no idea what you are saying. Please don't respond again as I do not understand your English.

I have 14 updates right now to install, and I did 3 yesterday. So Whats up with that?

Please, someone else answer my question ? Help ????

I am using ubuntu 8.04.3 for some time, and it comes with very little updates:
- a python security update
- some lib packages
- and several weeks (!) no updates.....

I do not understand why your system has so many updates, because we do use the same version of ubuntu...

Yeah, I don't get it. Every few days there are several updates. Maybe I did something to my system to cause this to happen. Thanks for the response but I have to figure it out.

Hi, Leoquant:

Well, since I just answered you there are 3 more updates today for a total of 17 - I am going crazy - I am not going to install any more.

there are two options here:
1) did you install 8.04 from an ubuntu cd? please run a lsb_release -a in the terminal, what is the outcome?
2) do you have the backports and proposed software sources enabled? (via software sources?)

Jennifer,

What Marcobra was trying to tell you, is that with Ubuntu, you get updates not only for the OS (Ubuntu Linux), but also for each and every application you install using the standard installer. That is the installer you find in the menu.

On Windows, you will get updates only for Windows OS (with Internet Explorer included), and maybe for Office, Defender and the like, but NOT for Firefox, or Winamp, Adobe Photoshop and the like you might have installed in Windows. And you won't get any update for drivers and associated programs for your printer, wifi card or webcam.

The difference between your experience about the number of fixes and the experience Leoquant has could therefore come (as I understand it) from extra programs and packages you installed over the last few days. Each of them (if installed using the standard installer/package manager, which gets these from the standard repositories that Canonical provides for Ubuntu) could have fixes and updates which might only get installed after the system rechecks what fixes are available for your installed applications.

You might want to read about this here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/9.10/add-applications/C/default-repos.html#default-repos-update

As an example, I just reinstalled Kubuntu a few days ago. I used the CD-iso. After installation, I had to update more than 150 bugfixes for the system and all applications installed, including a few for Firefox, Amarok (media-player) and so on.

There is an option within your Package Manager to check for updates. This option also provides an selection box where you are able to select the interval for update-checks. You might want to set this on a weekly basis rather than daily, as it is now.

As I use Kubuntu, I don't exactly know where it is in Ubuntu, but here is a page that gives it:
https://help.ubuntu.com/9.10/keeping-safe/C/updates.html

I tried to install Adobe Flashplayer 10 instead of 9 but it did not work out. I never had an installation CD. The machine came with Ubuntu installed. I did install Simple Compiz effects since Compiz Effects stopped working so they are both installed. I seem to have both Compiz Simple Effects and Compiz Effects. I do not have a CD. I ran the I just changed the updates in software sources to weekly from daily. I ran a lsb_release -a in the terminal and it showed only what my version of Ubuntu is and was about 4 lines. The only third party downloads shown are from canonical and launchpad. What else should I check or uncheck in Software Sources? The proposed and unsupported software sources and backports are NOT checked. Just looked at Update Mgr and the updates are all lib and python

Thanks for the help

when I tried to install Flash Player 10 that was a month ago but it did not cause more updates necessarily at that time. I seem to get more now.

Basically Microsoft only update Microsoft products (Windows, Office, FlightSim etc.)

Microsoft will not update (for example) your GrandTheftAuto software as they did not make it. It is considered a 3rd party app and is not maintained or managed by Microsoft

Ubuntu and the repositories you install things from contain ALL the apps you have installed as well as the kernel, the x server, the drivers, openoffice, EVERYTHING. The repos are updated as and when the individual teams submit new source and/or debs to add to the repo for you to then download. If the Ubuntu repos contained ONLY the core ubuntu system, you would get similar update behaviour to Microsofts, but the multitude of apps you have installed and are maintanined by the repo managers you have (official repos or PPAs) will keep the updates rolling.

You could have autoupdates OFF then cron a job to run at (for example) 5am to download the days updates in one block. This will reduce the bandwidth use during the day so your web will appear faster.

Jennifer, Hardy had a maintenance update.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2009-January/000117.html
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Changes in Hardy in January.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/hardy-changes/2010-January/thread.html
UWN #176
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue176#Ubuntu%208.04%20Updates

> I did install Simple Compiz effects since Compiz Effects stopped working so they are both installed.
> I seem to have both Compiz Simple Effects and Compiz Effects.

Compiz is a window manager.
Visual effects are provided through so called plugins, which can be enabled or disabled.
System preferences -> appearance -> visual effects = None or Normal or Extra

Means actually you can't install 'effects', but you can install 'plugin packages'.
http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?suite=default&section=all&arch=any&searchon=names&keywords=compiz

Maybe you've installed 'ccsm'
compizconfig-settings-manager
http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/compizconfig-settings-manager
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompizConfig
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompositeManager/ConfiguringCompiz

and/or
simple-ccsm
http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/simple-ccsm

In case you'd like to remove either one of them,
search for the package name in, lets say Synaptic package manager.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto

For the record, Hardy snapshot #4 is out (the last one before LTS 10.04).
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyReleaseNotes/ChangeSummary/8.04.4
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2010-January/000128.html

My question was, why are there so many updates every few days. Right now, as I was writing to you, there are 14 more to download. I am not objecting to having to download all the time but questioning if something is wrong with my system, not my settings which I can change.

1) did you install 8.04 from an ubuntu cd? please run a lsb_release -a in the terminal, what is the outcome?
2) do you have the backports and proposed software sources enabled? (via software sources?)

To Leoquant: The answer is NO to both. There is no Proposed software sources shown in the Software Sources dialog box in any tab and I do not have a CD. When I used that command in the terminal it did not show anything

Hi! there's nothing wrong with your system, updates are very normal in open source projects.
Why? open source projects are created by many developers which mean that they are in fact the sum of a lot of other projects which all have new versions and features.
Why am I writing about open source projects when you specifically asked about ubuntu? well ubuntu is a distribution, which means that is a collection of a LOT open source projects, how many? thousands... and counting...
What does this nonsense mean? It means that for every project there are updates and in contrast to microsoft who releases "accumulative" updates every second tuesday, in here updates are released whenever they are available.

Take in consideration that a lot of the open source projects are managed by enthusiasts that can't fight the temptation of releasing a new version every time they correct a bug or implement a new feature.

Hope this helps!

I am also kind of getting upset with Ubuntu and the frequent updates...i mean the updates are necessary but lately those updates have been changing the system so much that i just want to quit using UBuntu all together. For example; i hate the fact that in 12.04 the log in sound was disabled. Why? Why would you do that? I like to hear a beep here and there and i am sure many other users would agree with me.

That's just one thing. I could name a few. I love UBuntu. It's been two years since i switched to LInux and i am happy man for that.

If you re-set the sound theme do the sounds come back?

Well, what i've don is i added the "user/bin/canberra-gtk-play" to the list in the Startup App menu and now the sound is back. I know they have disabled the log in sound by default to perhaps speed up the boot time but since enableing it i haven't seen any difference in speed - it's still fast.

2nd thing is Mozilla! I like this browser and it looked really good when tabs were under the address bar. Now they are above and the option that was available to the user to freely move them up or down no longer exist. This way i am loosing almost 2 inches of the screen since i am using cinnamon desktop......i mean there is just a ton of stuff that should not be changed. Sometime i feel they create updates just so they have an "UPDATE".

Enough of me ranting :)

Right click on the tabs bar or navigation bar and check Tabs On Top

Well, the tabs are already on top but the option to positions them under the address bar is disabled. If anyone know how to do this in Mozilla please let me know.

As far as i know the option to have them bellow the address bar was not included in Ubuntu 12.04.