Keeping your system up to date in Linux can sometimes be laborious. If you’re an Ubuntu user and you’re not afraid bash scripts, Ubuntu Always Up To Date is a great way to automate updates on your Ubuntu machine.

WHAT IS IT AND WHAT DOES IT DO

Main Functionality

Ubuntu Always Up To Date is a bash script that automatically downloads and installs Ubuntu operating system updates, third-party software updates, drives updates, etc. Any and all updates that can be applied to your system are applied with Ubuntu Always Up To Date.

Ubuntu Always Up To Date manifests itself into your notification daemon and gives you popups letting you know if system is up-to -ate or not. If your system is not up-to-date, the script will then automatically install the updates.

Pros

• Easy setup. Installation is completely automated and very simple for newbies.
• Very fast and simple, and just works
• Integrates with most desktop environment notification systems

Cons

• Almost can be considered redundant as Ubuntu has native update feature, though that native feature is not automated — you have to manually apply updates
• It would be nice to have the ability to exclude specific software, drivers, etc. from updating because some users may not want to update everything

Discussion

Ubuntu is a great distribution. It’s not my all time favorite distro (that would be OpenSUSE), but it is my go-to distribution. Mostly because Ubuntu gets more support and more binary packages than any other distro. Ubuntu is also a very good option for newbies that don’t really know exactly how Linux works. Sometimes even advanced users (like myself) prefer Ubuntu because of it’s support.

This is a different sort of software than what most readers may be used to on this site. Ubuntu Always Up To Date is in essence a script that executes commands. This software can execute apt-get update or aptitude update commands for you at startup. This basically automates the process so you don’t have to think about it. Having custom  scripts can largely improve your Linux experience. Ubuntu Always Up To Date is a wonderful piece of software that can be a great tool for people that don’t want to think about updating. I have to say, it was really nice being able to just turn my computer on and have it just install the updates without even thinking about it. I love everything about it.

I love shell scripts, they make Linux more streamlined and more customized, and Ubuntu Always Up To Date is no exception. There might not be much to say about this in the line of features, but what I can say is that if you’re interested in keeping your system updates out of sight and out of mind, this script is a must have. It is able to be run straight from the terminal, but it can also be run in GUI mode, which is almost essentially the same thing. Once you’ve placed your system root password into the script, everything can be automated. This is an excellent script, and I’m glad I found it. I’m going to continue using it, because I like the concept. I might even modify the script to work with other distros. The possibilities are endless.

CONCLUSION AND DOWNLOAD LINK

Ubuntu Always Up To Date is a wonderful bash script. If you’re an Ubuntu user, and you haven’t unlocked the sheer awesomeness of bash scripts, consider this your lucky day. This script will allow you to keep your system up-to-date without you even having to think about it. If you’re not the type of person to prefer automation: remember, Ubuntu has it’s own update solution and you can of course do it by hand in terminal. For people that prefer to not think about updates and to have them automatically be applied, Ubuntu Always Up To Date is a winner.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 2013-03-27 version

Supported OS: Linux (Ubuntu)

Download size: 1.8 KB

Is it portable? N/A — it’s a bash script

Ubuntu Always Up To Date homepage