Currently you can spend ten minutes downloading updates followed by ten minutes installing them.
Update Manager should analyse the dependencies in packages which need updating and download the packages with no dependencies first (that is no dependencies on packages which themselves need updating), followed by files which only depended on the first package downloaded etc.
This will allow updates to be installed in parallel - as soon as the first package is downloaded it can be installed.
Interesting insight, could yield some interesting results.
cheesehead(Brainstorm moderator)
wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 03:34
The current method is simple and protects your system.
Haste and impatience during an installation are great reasons to hose your system. Schedule it for down time instead (lunch is a nice time to let the machine churn).
Change nothing about install/update without good reason.
This would make large updates, like the first when you install ubuntu, go much faster. slow computers spend more time intalling than downloading, this could help at least 40% of the installing time.
Apart from the dependency issue, packages that affect the network connectivity should also be marked as so, and not installed until all packages have been downloaded.
I believe it too risky. People won't be so impressed if 400 updates are done 10 minutes faster, but they will be furious and erase Ubuntu if an update breaks their system.
Many possibilities to f-up, but huge speedup on slow systems behind slow internet connections.
Diskspace needed for upgrade can also be reduced if installed packages are deleted.
As an option yes, not as default.
I had this same Idea. as long as the computer downloads and then installs the dependencies first it would work great. I don't get how this would be dangerous at all if Ubuntu is still paying attention to required dependencies. I think this should also be implemented for apt-get, synaptic, and Add/Remove programs too. +1!