Updates via GUI - no indicator

[smhardesty]

I'll attempt to tackle each concern and clarify best I can.

Because there's no indication its doing anything, one just assumes its finished (or there wasn't anything to update).

I won't bother with the whole assume thing. Let's tackle the issue. You, yourself stated that you ran the update and after a short period you did receive notification that the update was done. I made sure to run "Lite Updates" on this laptop right before I started typing these responses. My system happened to be up to date so I received a window that clearly indicated to me that the update was indeed completed and that my system was up to date. The window had only a single "OK" button that closed it. I could start listing a lot of "actions" taken either on a computer or in some other aspect of life where you wouldn't "assume" the action or task were complete until you were notified, or in some other fashion absolutely certain it had finished.

What kind of conventional means? It seems this is the first people have heard/reported it - but i had it on three separate laptops. If there's a known workaround, i'd love to try it and report back.

Probably not the best choice of terminology, but I was trying to be kind and courteous. By "basic, conventional means" I was referring to taking the time to instruct new users of the OS what they might expect when launching "Lite Updates". If you are turning these donated laptops over to a bunch of younger users that have never before seen a Linux installation, there MUST BE a minimum of instruction. It seems many Windows users first switching to Linux expect whatever distro they have chosen to either be completely self explanatory and intuitive, or be exactly like Windows. Not a single one of those Windows users fell out of bed one day and sat down at a Windows PC and never had to ask a single question. Each and every one of them received instruction of some sort from some person or entity.

I usually update via the Terminal, but i doubt a single recipient of these laptops would.

I have, and continue to, update in 4 different ways. I primarily use the updater supplied by Ralphy, but on occasion update via command line, "Lite Updates", or Synaptic, but what you and I do aren't your primary concern, or that is what you have stated. Your concern seems to be with these laptop recipients.
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