How about following the lead of Mac OS (no flames, please) and developing a software update mechanism? On the Mac it periodically checks for new versions of installed software (OS, applications, etc.) and notifies the user. The user can then decide what to update, and it will download and install the appropriate pieces.

This may not be a practical solution in the Unix world, given the number of OS variants, and that source and binaries are scattered across many servers, but perhaps there's at least a way of providing notification. Just knowning that a newer, better version of a piece of software is available is half the battle.


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