On my desktop, I have it download the updates in the background but still require it to ask me for permission to do the updates. I can be configured (with a checkbox) to install security updates automatically.

I want to totally control my laptop because I may or may not want downloading, depending on internet connection, and I’m fairly likely to want to shut that machine down during some process. The desktop is easier to leave running while it is doing updates, and the internet connection is via a LAN and obviously is always the same connection.

Go to System/Adminstration/Update Manager/Settings

But even the system you are using now, entering those commands, is way more automatic. There are exceptions, like some Java-based software, and that is very annoying, but it is pretty much true that everything that is normal software gets updated automatically when you apt-get.

Windows does not have an automatic software update system. The OS has an update system, but each software install is on its own, which is the point! As you point out, it is a mess. MadS: Right, you Windows has the whole nag thing going. You’ll find that many “update” nags are just ads.

Linux, on the other hand, just works. I hear Mac, based on *nix and thus Linux like underneath it all, had a similar system but it is no longer working as well. Not sure of that.

“And 11 for 2011. Nearly 6-in-10 Americans affirm American exceptionalism, that God has granted America a special role in human history. Those affirming this view are more likely to support military interventions and to say torture is sometimes justified.”

And given US demographics(Muslims are less than 1% of population), the Xtian right is both a bigger threat, and a more urgent one.

Even back in ~1993 I used the cheaper and excellent FujiChrome (Velvia 50 was one of my favorites). Kodak still have color positives (Ektachrome rather than the old Kodachrome process) but it’s been so long since I’ve used Ektachrome that I can’t remember what the results were like – they can’t be bad though or Kodak wouldn’t be selling it as a professional film. For negatives I loved an old ASA25 film made by Kodak; I can’t even remember the name – but that was discontinued decades ago. For outdoor photography the color reproduction was excellent and the grain qualities were also very good – I could shoot a 35mm frame and blow it up to 1.5m (magnification of ~43 as opposed to the more typical ~4 for prints) and the resulting image was still very good when viewed up close.

“Forty-five percent of Americans say the values of Islam are at odds with American values and way of life”

So the other 55% are ignorant of the “values of islam”? You’d think it would be easy enough to look up news articles on any islamic theocracy and see that it’s anathema to our own constitution. That doesn’t mean we should allow bigots to drum them out of town, just that religion should be kept far away from politics. Then again I suppose so-called ‘christian values’ are also at odds with American values and way of life.