doesn't state why updates are necessary

[Sean Middleditch]

Binary package hint: update-manager

The update manager doesn't state why updates are necessary. It just lists a bunch of cryptic package names with some blurb about what the package is for (which itself is usually cryptic, since you often see 5-6 packages for a single application or component of the desktop, and all the package descriptions just say the same thing).

The update manager should at the very least state why updates are available (are they security updates? bug fixes? new features? are they critical?).

It would also be swell if the update manager would group related packages together (with an expander to see all of the packages for the silly pedantic people who have the time to waste) so instead of seeing 5 packages about Abiword updates, the user just sees that there is an update to Abiword (as an example). The fact that Abiword is delivered as multiple packages is an internal implementation detail of the Debian packaging policy that is completely irrelevant to users (and most developers) and it's just useless noise. I imagine that extra meta-data might be necessary in packages to pull that part off correctly.

[Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor)]

Mainly your bug reports outlines my plans for gutsy+1:

https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/update-manager-app-view

Actually the updates are already grouped by their nature:

security, backports, etc.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Fixing this would address the problem that the package description is not an especially meaningful thing to display to upgraders in the first place. At the very least, we should make it clear that it is a description of the *package* rather than a description of the *update*. (This confused a user who asked about it on #ubuntu-devel today.)

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

The latest version of update-manager supports fetching NEWS.Debian and it will be displayed before the changelog. This should partly adress the problem. And the text of the description label should probably change too.

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

I'm marking this bug as a duplicate of bug #89284, as grouping updates by importance (security fixes, recommended updates, etc) is already implemented, as Sebastian has mentioned in comment 1, and the other part of this (same changelog/description for many updates) would be solved if updates would be grouped by their source package or by the application they do belong to, which is exactly what is requested in bug #89284.
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