[petsc-dev] I hate nagupgrade

[Karl Rupp]

Hi,

> There is a difference between a library and an end-user application.
> Having "updaters" for end-user applications seems to be the status quo
> on Windows and to a lesser extent on Macs, but is resented on Linux.
> Having a library do these checks is not okay anywhere.

I remember a session at the Google Summer of Code where some guy from 
one of the open source wikis shared his experiences with having embedded 
a 'counter pixel' in a release. In short, his lesson learned was that 
any kind of "phoning home" is an absolute no-go unless made *very* clear 
to the users (plus opt-out). This was pre-Snowden, so many people are 
now much more sensible with respect to these matters...

Best regards,
Karli