So a while back I threw Ubuntu 22 LTS on an old Surface Pro 3 and gave it to my Dad.
He loves it, but he's the type who's been burnt by updating software in the past, so he basically refuses any whenever prompted.
Been thinking about throwing Debian with Gnome on it for a while, and wondering if it's stable enough to just let updates happen automatically in the background?
I got no experience with Debian I basically jumped right on EndeavourOS as my main distro when I started using Linux full time.
I sympathise with your Dad - everyone's had updates go bad, and it's easy to assume the "don't fix what ain't broke" mantra. But to do so is being willfully ignorant of basic computer security. And to be fair, Debian-stable is one of the least troublesome things to just let automatically update.
Debian and Ubuntu have the unattended-upgrades package which is designed to take a lot of the sting out of automatic updating. I'd recommend setting that up and you won't have to touch it again.
There's also the crontab way - "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" at frequencies that suit you. (A check for reboot afterwards is a good idea).
For the crontab I think maybe: "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade --assume-yes"
But what about flatpaks?
Good call, thanks, although I just use -y normally.
Not a personal fan of flatpacks - I tend to stick to distro packages, but each to their own.
Since we're talking Ubuntu, I'd add
"flatpak update" and "snap refresh" to the cron
I understand having updates go south on you, I do use a rolling release on my own PC, Annnnd Windows 10 before that.
But I'm paranoid about security, increasingly so in recent times. So I at least want him on an updated web browser.
You're right to be paranoid, it's unrelenting how many and varied are the ways of those wanting to take advantage. I hope you find a good compromise for your dad.
If you install (well more like unpack) Firefox from the official binary tarball, that will update itself.