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Comment by rbanffy | Hacker News Reader

Unless you depend on Mac-only software, I strongly advise you to try a modern Linux like Ubuntu or Fedora. You may encounter updates a couple times a month, but updates this size are very rare and so is the need to reboot after them.

I know. I am a Linux fanboy.

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I've had two kernel updates (40+ MB downloads and a required reboot) in the past month or so on the latest Ubuntu, but in general you're right, these updates aren't usually this common.

OpenOffice updates seem to be the worst in Ubuntu; a few years ago, I remember a 100+ MB update to remove a logo from the splash screen!

By the way, this is probably the wrong place but I really don't like the new way it notifies you of an update - instead of a small icon in the systray and a notification, you now get update-manager appearing on top of whatever it is you're doing. A backwards step.

At least on Fedora, if you use the binary NVIDIA driver, on kernel updates you also have to make sure that you update your drivers to use the latest kernel headers. I typically forget this step so after the reboot I'm greeted by the console prompt. Recompile, reboot again. Annoys the hell out of me.

Ubuntu has DKMS which automates this whole process. You just get a pause on bootup while it recompiles the driver.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Kernel_Module_Support

Fedora also has DKMS according to this: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/packages/name/dkms

However the NVIDIA driver has its own installer and stuff so I don't think it works nicely with DKMS. Probably that's why it's not working at all in this case.

Works for me on Ubuntu - although I do install my nvidia drivers using Envy, so maybe it's that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envy_(software)

instead of a small icon in the systray and a notification, you now get update-manager appearing on top of whatever it is you're doing. A backwards step.

I can't wait to upgrade my inlaws' LTS machin to the newer releases for exactly this reason. They never notice the icon in the tray, but they'll do something about the updates window...

"instead of a small icon in the systray and a notification, you now get update-manager appearing on top of whatever it is you're doing"

Isn't there a way to configure it's "eagerness to get updated"? There should.

If not, we should file a bug report

Yeah, I'm a Linux sysadmin and I run Ubuntu at home, but I have a mac laptop because the hardware is nice and my experience with Linux on laptops is poor. Also, Omnigraffle is awesome.

Maybe I should give Linux another go on the laptop, when I have a couple of days to spare...

Save yourself the pain, don't.

Thanks for the insightful comment.

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