397409 - by default, don't prompt users when minor update is downloaded and ready to be installed, just apply on restart

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 391598

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Description

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

by default, don't tell users that they have security updates (just download and apply on restart silently)

this is to help the "too many updates" problem.

beltnzer suggested this in a private thread, and I'm moving it here for a public discussion.

a summary:

by default, we silently download minor updates in the background (first partial, but also do this for complete mar, if the partial fails, without telling the user).  

don't inform the user at all that they have an update, just apply it on next restart.

right now, informing is done with the focus-stealing "you have an update" software dialog.  about the focus stealing, see bug #323041.  unfortunately, the idle service is not on the MOZILLA_1_8_BRANCH, perhaps we should back port it?

on the users next restart, we'll apply the update.  it won't be 100% silent, as they'll see the sofware updater app progess UI.  but note, we don't show the UI for that app if the update takes less than .5 seconds.  See http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/toolkit/mozapps/update/src/updater/progressui_win.cpp#264  (Perhaps we could increase that value up or not show the UI for mars under a certain size?)

note to window/dveditz/others: this would increase the time between when we push mars for a security update and when users actually have the new version of firefox.  I routinely have firefox/thunderbird uptime of weeks.  Perhaps we should extend the "nag" timeout pref from days to weeks?

note, this assumes that the minor update doesn't cause any addons to be incompatible, which is not always the case, as an addon author could specific 2.0.0.5 as a maxVersion for their add on.

Comment 1

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Is this a dupe of bug 334767?

I'm not keen to approve any change like this for the 2.0 branch. Note that some people have asked for the exact opposite (WONTFIXed bug 335798) and that this idea proposed for the trunk was controversial (bug 334767).

If this isn't a dupe and instead covers a branch-only change I'd still want to see how this works in the trunk first, through several beta updates. See bug 334767 comment 11 and comment 12 for issues that a trunk version would have to demonstrably avoid.

Comment 2

[Rafael Bebelacqua]

I'd think users may think they're having things hidden from them, and, well, you know, bad reviews by new users and so.
Also there aren't so many updates... there's a major (2.0.0.5 to 2.0.0.6) update once in a while. No, I don't like having things hidden from me ^^. Also, you, user, start firefox, and, instead of the familiar window you have some "update progress bar"... just.. why?
When firefox tells you it's gonna download an update it also tells you next time you start the updates are gonna be applied. This other way it would be even suspicious...
I think you may put some "Firefox is being updated"/"Firefox is downloading an update" text near the "Activity Indicator". Seems cool there.

Comment 4

[TC Holmes]

Rather than agonize about how much is being hidden from the user, why not just let them choose for themselves?

Tools > Options > Advanced > Update tab

Already covers this, and IMO just needs some more options.  Essentially, most prompts that might pop should be offered here (or somewhere) as defaults the user can set.

At the very least I would like the option to set Firefox to apply update on the next restart without bugging me.

I also help LOTS of people who are less than tech savvy and just want it to work.  They're not likely to download a lot of add-ons, and minimizing user intervention would be a Good Thing®.

Comment 5

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

I'm morphing the title a little bit, since this is an area in which the precise intent of a bug seems to matter quite a bit.

 - we don't want to restart silently
 - we don't want to apply the update silently
 - we don't want to not tell users that they got a security update

What we want is to simply download the update and apply it on the next restart, and not interrupt users. If the user has the preference checked to "Ask me what to do" they should still get the prompt. We may wish to optimize so that we prompt if the user's session is older than 48 hours in order to ensure that long-running browsers get their updates (see bug 407780) but also ensure that we're not taking focus when the application isn't in the foreground (see bug 407536).

Comment 6

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

This is essentially the same as bug 391598, duping and making this a single bug.

Comment 7

[another_sam]

I will like to see the adoption of Firefox 5 on August/September stats.

In my experience with dialogs like
http://www.computerworld.com/common/images/site/features/2011/06/Firefox_Update_508.jpg
, people press "Ask later" and "Close" like you <teaser>never imagined</teaser>.