With the release of Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, Ksplice Uptrack - the rebootless update capability - will yet again be offered free of charge for Ubuntu Desktop 10.10.

Bruce Ingalls sent us a new and much improved version of his Java Update script for Ubuntu. The script uses Zenity for a GUI so it's very easy to use.

Specto is a Linux-based desktop application that allows you to watch for configurable events and get notified instantly when updates are available. Things that you can monitor include websites, emails, files/folders, system processes and connection ports.

Using toast takes the burden out of building, installing, and keeping track of software built from source. You can use toast to build and maintain software installed in your /home directory as a regular user, or to set up software for all users in /usr/local. toast can obtain packages over HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and via SSH and CVS. It can handle most archive formats, as well as .rpm and .deb packages.

By default, Ubuntu automatically checks for updates daily. If this is too frequent for you, you can change the interval to something that better fits your needs.

When I started using GNU/Linux eight years ago, I was dumbfounded to encounter Debian users who started their day by upgrading their entire system. Yet now, with the updaters that sit in the notification trays of recent GNOME and KDE-based distributions, I realize that these daily upgraders were not daredevils, but pioneers in the idea that all upgrades are desirable.