After publishing the 5.5.version of 2click Update, it got an unexpected attention by the community. Many referral links, reviews, code contribution, translations and some emails pointing in one general question:
what the heck does it do and why to use 2click Update when there is already Ubuntu Update manager available
After some mails talking about the reasons why 2click Update is better than “classic” update manager with Andrew, author of Web Upd8 , I realized that many people could have the same questions that raised upon the discussion. Let me give you a better description of what makes 2click Update a “smart robot”(script).
In the Download Page of 2clickUpdate I dont give technical details about what is this software for. I just mention that:
The 2clickUpdate (pronounced: double-click-update) using the power of “apt-get” speeds up the updating of the operating system and programs installed without bothering you with “trivial” confirmation messages. Also it cleans your disk of all waste generated by updating procedures.
On the other hand, Ubuntu’s Update Manger will just inform you that there are available system update that can be installed. Most of the times users tend to ignore it thinking that its not necessary yet to install them or they are in the middle of something else and they Close the window that appears. Wrong move people! 😉
2click Update comes in two flavors:
- 2clickUpdate (the GUI version)
- 2clickUpdateCORE (the GUI-less/terminal version)
Both do the same thing in deferent way. The GUI version is double-clicked and the GUI-less is run through terminal. Lets compare 2click Update with Ubuntu Update manager with two paradigms.
Paradigm 1)
Lets say, you hate command line And you want to maintenance your system keeping all parts with the latest updates.
a) You open “Update Manager”
b) You press “Check”” to refresh your package list
c) If there are updates available you press “Install updates”
d) Then it asks you “Confirm to install the updates”
e) Then you press “Yes”
f) Update manager installs the updates and after it finishes, you press “Close” to close it.
g) As a good “admin” of your system you want to cleanup the packages that left behind this procedure
h) You use Ubuntu Tweak or Gtkorphan to clean the files under “var/cache/apt/archives”, remove orphaned packages and clean up old residential config files.
i) After many “next.. next… OK… click… click… done” your system is up-to-date and cleaned up.
All of the above procedures can be done just by double clicking the 2clickUpdate. No confirmation dialogs with an all-in-one system updates and cleanups. And dont forget how the package download is possessed… package downloads during updates are much faster than traditional “apt-get upgrade” of Update manager because instead of “wget”, 2click Update is using “axel” !
Paradigm 2)
Lets say you love command line .
a) You type in terminal all the traditional “sudo apt-get” (update/upgrade/autoclean/autoremove) one after the other.
b) Then using deborphan in command line you search for orphaned packages, residential config files and delete them.
All the above procedures of “Paradigm 2” can be done just by installing “2clcikUpdateCORE”. You just type 2clickUpdateCORE.sh and everything is done automatically. The CORE version also uses “axel” for downloading packages. Most importantly if you are a power-user, or you have a server/workstation that you want to keep it automatically updated/cleaned up, you can configure the CORE version with Cron, to run once in a wile and just forget it!
Under the Hood:
2clickUpdate has the following “modules” to make all the hard stuff for you
- ReApt: Updates your package list
- SpeedApt: Downloads package upgrades using “axel” for multiple connections per package boosting the speed of downloading
- AutoremApt: Removes packages that were automatically installed to satisfy dependencies for some package and that are no more needed.
- OrphanApt: Removes packages and configuration files which are not required by any other package upon your system
- AutocleanApt: Removes all stored archives in your cache for packages that are no longer in the repositories or that have a newer version in the repositories.
- CleanApt: Deleting from cache the downloaded packages to free up some space
I hope that I made some clarifications about 2clickUpdate.
Utappia 