Security updates question

[interested_switcher]

Hello Everyone,

I'm thinking of switching to Mint from a regular Ubuntu system. I noticed that distrowatch says that Mint doesn't issue security advisories. Normally, with my current Ubuntu set-up, I notice that security patches are issued quite frequently. Is distrowatch referring to Mint not issuing security patches or is distrowatch saying that Mint doesn't offer security advisories (e.g. in text form on their website)? Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

Allen

[pack3tg0st]

I find that there are updates quite frequently... almost daily for me (it'll depend on what packages you're running which updates you'll get).

I would think they mean its security advisories...

[vincent]

Mint doesn't offer "security advisories" in the same way Ubuntu does, but security updates are there if you wish to install them. The thing is, most security updates (or at least the important ones) are all kernel updates, which has the tendancy to break things for certain people, especially those who have to recompile kernel modules because their hardware likes to mess with them. Mint does not install any updates automatically; the only indication that an update is available is that the mintUpdate icon changes from a secured lock to an unsecured lock symbol. In addition, Mint has a unique rating system that rates each package depending on its stability, from levels 1 to 5, 1 being the most stable and tested (e.g. the official Mint tools) and 5 being the most dangerous and most risky updates that may bork your system (e.g. kernel updates). Level 4 and level 5 updates (mostly X server and kernel updates) are hidden by default, and you have to go into mintUpdate's Preference settings to change that.

The reason for this approach to updates is simply to ensure that no Mint user unknowingly borks their own system, without taking an extra step to enable lower-level security updates. If you want those updates, you better make sure you know how to fix your system if something goes wrong.

[altair4]

In addition to what vincent said above, you can verify for yourself that security updates are being passed to you.

Menu > Administration > Software Sources > Other Software Tab

You'll notice that "Important Security Updates" has been enabled by default