This weekend I discovered a feature of Ubuntu that I think is so interesting is has to be posted here. I am sure most of you are familiar with the orange spiky blob that appears to tell you there are updates available. Over this weekend, a different icon appeared in place of the blob – a bright red down-arrow with an exclamation point in the middle. This icon indicates important updates, mostly security-related.

So why is this such a great idea? After all, it is just an icon. What is big deal?

Ubuntu, and most Linux distributions, don’t try and force you to let your computer automatically install updates. This makes sense, because, generally speaking, Linux users want more choice and are tech-savvy enough to remember to do the updates on their own, with a little reminding from an orange spiky blob of course. This means, however, that when a less tech-savvy user starts running Ubuntu on their desktop, they might miss important updates. At least they might if the red icon did not exist.

The orange blob blends into the interface well and is so often up there that it is easy to ignore if you don’t look for it. The red exclamation icon is far less easy to ignore for three reasons. First, it does not blend into the interface as well as orange does, making it easier to spot. Second, it rarely appears, making its appearance even more noticable. And third, people link the color red with danger. For these three reasons, even someone who misses the normal updates will at least see the most important updates, keeping them at least fairly safe.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Security, Summary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.