Updates, ignore them?

atrip36

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I'm new as of yesterday and looking at 94 updates available. Everything seems to be working including my printer, don't want to mess things up.

I too am here because of windows 7 no longer being supported, but I do remember early on with that that updates were causing problems so I stopped installing them. Only automatic security essentials were being updated. I never had any problems caused by not doing updates.

What about just installing the security marked updates?

Another thing I've got to figure out if problems do arise from installing updates, how to go back to a previous session before the update caused function problems. Seems odd that you get hit with so many available updates on day one.
 


G'day atrip36, and Welcome to linux.org

The large number of updates are because you have just installed. This is considered normal.

I have Linux Mint installed for approx 5 years

I update every day if updates are available (usually only two or maybe three per day for a week or so, then none for a couple of weeks...etc etc)

I was advised to install and use Timeshift long ago.....and I have done that. Timeshift gives you the ability to go back a day or a week or whatever you need to do. It is similar to System Restore in windoiws....with the added plus that it actually works

My point is this....if you are unlucky enough to get a bad update...(this is incredibly rare)...then you can set the situation right again using Timeshift.

At this point you had better tell us which Linux you are running
 
Windows is being so traumatic for people that it teach them to not install updates. This is catastrophic.

If you are on a stable distro, only bug fixes will be included in updates so there is no risk for a new feature breaking everything.

Sometimes when fixing a bug somewhere a new bug appear somewhere else but this kind of behavior tends to happen only on poorly supported hardware. If you have a few years old machine this kind of problem is not likely to happen.

Also on most Linux distros there is a common way for handling programs installed and their updates. It not like Windows where system updates only concern the core system. Since everything get updates through the same channel you end up with a lot of updates. The counterpart is that you won't have a program updating itself when you start it and you have a better control of what's installed and what's not.

Why should you upgrade a working system ?
  • Well if anything goes wrong and you want to reach for help you will probably ask for something that has already been fixed. This fragmentation of the users on different versions make it REALLY hard for developpers to keep up and fix everything. This is also the reason why Windows forces the updates : they don't want to handle 1 billion users using 1 billion different versions of their system.
  • There is already some filtering of updated on your distro. Like I said on stable releases only bugs fixes are included in updates
  • Then there is security. There are very few people in the world able to discover new bugs in the latest version of any program and exploit them for malicious operations. There are a little more people able to use newly discovered bugs to for malicious purpose. There are a lot more people able to use old reported bugs, for which you can find exploit kits, and use them for malicious operations. Keeping things up to date won't make you invincible but unless you have something very valuable to protect you can be sure that nobody will spend the time required to break into your system.
 
Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon.

Yes on that.

OK, I'll give the updates a shot, I think I'll do a few at a time and see what happens. Nothing more frustrating than everything humming along smoothly only to be fouled up by some not asked for updates.

BTW, this switching out operating systems is the riskiest thing I've ever done on my computer. The fact that I did it successfully by myself, some video help, says a lot about the quality and ease of Linux.

Definitely going to give "Timeshift" a look as well.

Thanks ALL!!
 
Timeshift is a MUST

The only thing that hasn't been mentioned here, is the mindset difference between updating Windows and updating Linux

In windows it has become an almost "normal" mindset to be really careful about which updates are installed and particularly which ones are not installed. Search google and yopu will find update numbers KB ****** etc etc etc...do this, dont do that etc etc etc

Linux.....search google....you will find no such thing. The mentality is totally different. You can quite safely install every update that is in your list. You do not need to search google etc for what each one does etc etc etc....all that is behind you.

The first few times you update are a touch stressful....waiting for a shutdown or a bsod......(wont happen)

Get used to it. It works.
:)
 
OK, I'll give the updates a shot, I think I'll do a few at a time and see what happens. Nothing more frustrating than everything humming along smoothly only to be fouled up by some not asked for updates.
OK the 1st thing you need to do is to forget your Windows habits and install the updates al of them at the same time ain't nothing bad going to happen.

Here's a good read.

BTW, this switching out operating systems is the riskiest thing I've ever done on my computer. The fact that I did it successfully by myself, some video help, says a lot about the quality and ease of Linux.

Definitely going to give "Timeshift" a look as well.

Thanks ALL!!
The fact that you accomplished this and I quote " riskiest thing" tells you that Linux is solid and reliable.

Linux is a breeze compared to Windows 10 OS .
OK you do have to learn a few new things. o_O
 
In windows it has become an almost "normal" mindset to be really careful about which updates are installed
Actually it doesn't matter with windows as I have never check for updates box checked and I was having a bit of bother with it and was doing a so called recovery and in the system restore panel they give you a list of restore points and I clicked on show more restore points and lo and behold there were extra restore points because of so called critical updates, no wonder at times it took so long to shutdown at times and also to run up.
As I have stated before vindows has more back doors than a mouse living Swiss cheese. Or More back doors than a rabbit warren in the Wimmera.
 
What do you call it when your computer gets infected with a keylogger, a rootkit and half a dozen backdoors?
A free windows upgrade
 
Linux is a breeze compared to Windows 10 OS .
OK you do have to learn a few new things. o_O
Quiet agree with that.
What people forget is that because vindows und Mac were the most obvious OS around so people gradually learnt them over time.
But since they move to Linux they have to learn all the foibles of the OS so that they seem daunted at the task but were the tables switched around they would find the same thing in using a Mac or vindows OS.
 
Quiet agree with that.
What people forget is that because vindows und Mac were the most obvious OS around so people gradually learnt them over time.
But since they move to Linux they have to learn all the foibles of the OS so that they seem daunted at the task but were the tables switched around they would find the same thing in using a Mac or vindows OS.
Yes. only switching from Linux to Windows would be much more daunting! YUCK!
 
Definitely going to give "Timeshift" a look as well.

That's good news, Mate. On your Tina Cinnamon, Timeshift is already installed, under Menu - Administration.

Any questions on it, by all means ask over at my Timeshift Thread, and the Distro known as Linux Lite also ships with it and has a brief Tute here, which is a little less rambling than mine :)

I have been using Timeshift for 5 years October 1st just passed, which does not give me all the answers, but a lot of experience.

Cheers

Wizard

And nicely put, all our Members above. :D
 
All's well that ends well. I did the updates 6 at a time starting at the bottom, got to around 50 and then just installed the rest of them. Guess what, for some reason my Email tabs on my Linux mint start page wouldn't load right. Got the usual headrush of panic these situations cause but thought a restart was in order as a logical step, fixed! So I'm now seeing the check mark that my system is up to date and everything appears good, good times.

As far as switching operating systems, I made one mistake, I didn't back up my bookmarks to a CD with the rest of my stuff. I thought those would be carried over in my Google Chrome acct. Not a big deal, I needed to clean house anyway but still.
 
All's well that ends well. I did the updates 6 at a time starting at the bottom, got to around 50 and then just installed the rest of them. Guess what, for some reason my Email tabs on my Linux mint start page wouldn't load right. Got the usual headrush of panic these situations cause but thought a restart was in order as a logical step, fixed!
This is why it's usually best to install all of the updates at one time as certain updates may contain needed dependencies that other updates rely upon to properly install.

Linux generally doesn't develop problems / issues from installing updates.

It can / does happen occasionally although rarely does in my experience.
 
over in my Google Chrome acct
When you signed back in to your Google acct. did it come up with sync your acct?
As by hitting sync generally brings up all your bookmarks.
I will have to watch that when I load up Google once I am in ether space.
Thanks for that heads up.
 
When you signed back in to your Google acct. did it come up with sync your acct?
As by hitting sync generally brings up all your bookmarks.

I did the sync but it didn't bring them back.

I'm the last guy you want computer tech advice from, but If I got this right, too late for me, you need to back them up to save them when switching OS's.
 
I did the sync but it didn't bring them back.
Even on vindows that has occurred to me.
Ah! But you have an experience I didn't have and it was not tech but usage of the system. :);):)
 

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