The update pace is dizzying and requires some effort for users to keep pace
The HA team is incredibly responsive and new features are awesome!
Is it possible to do something like the Ubuntu Long Term support plan?
Decide on a stable release schedule (yearly, 2 years. Pick a cycle that works)
The LTS branch gets only non breaking security updates as needed
new features continue in the active release branch
If users want a particular new feature or fix, they can always move to the active branch, but cannot go back to the LTS branch until the next LTS cycle.
I would Upvote the downvote possibility.
I don’t have any opinion on this topic, but I believe a downvote is a good tool with WTH (and feature requests in general).
The way we have it now is we can either like the WTH or not.
Not liking, not seeing and outright hating it are all clumped together as “don’t vote”.
bad idea bro
you aren’t inventing anything new. I saw it few times and always have been removed. the ideas were being burried down by people who did have no expertize or just didn’t need particular change (haters aside).
I can also feel a bit stressed of the orange number next to settings, and the list of new updates on top of the settings menu. I have a suggestion of a opt in/out UI feature, “show all updates”.
If you have it off:
The orange number on the side bar only show for major releases and security updates. At a major release or a security update everything behaves as normal.
But when you have the latest major installed:
Instead of a large list of add-ons/core/os/etc releases on top of the settings menu, if you have updated, it is only a thin banner with a menu option like “Look for updates”, something that feels less urget.
Note: I would probably have this turned off because I like to install all uppdates all of the time, but I recognize the feeling of stress that it adds. (I updated less frequently when I ran it in a docker container and did not had this reminder)
You don’t have to update every time there is an update available.
the major release is the only release that offers updated functionality. If you want that functionality then you update to the new major release.
But the newest release can come with bugs. If you are OK with taking that risk then update to the .0 release. If not then wait a few .x releases for the bugs to get worked out then update. that’s what I do.
then update one time. You don’t need to update to any further .x releases because it adds no additional functionality and assuming there is no bug fix that you need you gain absolutely no benefit at all from further updates.
I update one time a month. If there is a bug I roll back to my previous working version and wait for that bug to get fixed and then update once more. If everything works then that’s it. Whether there are updates everyday after that or not I never update again until the next stable (moderately bug free) major release.
Very well said… and update strategy is a personal thing… some people want to keep the system always updated to the latest patch, while other people would like more to keep on the safe side and only install more stable updates. Both have advantages and disadvantages, so you have to choose yourself.
I’m on the first group, so I use this blueprint to keep everything always updated, regardless the risk involved on that.
If you are in the other group, this automation suggested by @CentralCommand may be the right direction for you.
It’s not some much about when to update or have it update automatically. It’s more about the notification and when to get a notification. You want a system which is always up to date and have it auto update alle the time so you don’t see the notification. But for people like me who have a system which needs to be stable more then being up to date, we have a constant orange notification which is annoying and distracting from other more important notifications. We like to be able to at least choose which update we get notified for.
An option for me could be that notifications for updates deliver a green badge and more important notifications from the system an orange badge. That way I can at least see the difference.
A patch will include a fix for something. Maybe it’s not related to your system at all, so it’s fine if you don’t apply that patch, but many times it could be related to something that you haven’t noticed yet, but could be causing some damage or risk to your system, so you probably should apply the patch.
Updates are there not only to add functionalities.
It won’t because I don’t think automations are meant for this. And another thing is that I don’t do automations with templates or Jinja. That’s a personal choice I know. But i think this WTH could easily be a choice in settings.
Yeah, I fully agree this should be part of Home Assistant core, however, I understand the development team isn’t infinite, so they have to choose every day between a very important thing and another very important thing… I will love if the choose first things that cannot be solved by the community, even when the community’s solution isn’t the best.
Thanks for this WTH @phd62 - I was about to post something similar! I find there’s the new release each month (which is great, lots of blog and YT coverage) but I know that when I update it there’ll immediately be more updates almost every day after that for a week or so! Lots of the updates seem very minor and I don’t understand why they’re released so quickly, couldn’t there just be a new release each month as per the existing schedule then a bugfix release a couple of weeks later rather than this continual stream of releases? I appreciate it’s perhaps just my need to feel ‘up to date’ but I find it tricky when there’s just the continuing stream like this!
The new release can come with bugs. Some people are affected by those bugs, some aren’t.
If you are not affected by the bugs you probably will be OK about waiting 2 weeks for a fix, but pretend you are critically affected by one of the bugs and a fix is already implemented… You probably will ask for that fix ASAP, no?
And remember you are not forced to update when a new update is available. You can just ignore it or, if you don’t want the orange badge in your screen, just click at “Skip” and that is gone. You can eve automate this.
This is cool!
I just had a personal feeling, that perhaps minor updates could be grouped …
I wanted to point the question, and I see people are interested in it. I am happy having done it, this discussion much interested me.
I very well know there are pros and cons for any solution, updating a widely shared software is not easy.
I tried to mention some, perhaps that made my question unclear.
Anyway, the answer is up to everybody, not black or white.
BTW Thanks for taking care of my mental health. My wife says too, “you geeks are all crazy”. Perhaps I should seriously consider that point
