Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

> You're assuming that updates are *optional* - that, as sysadmin, I can block them til *I'm* ready, which may be never. Yet a post ago you were saying that they should NOT be optional, that they get force installed. Either you're happy with the sysadmin delaying them (ie they're optional), or they get force-installed and who cares if it crashes a critical system.

I think you're conflating separate issues in your argument. First of all I guess everyone agrees that a sysadmin must be able to choose the best time to install updates (including security fixes) if he should be in control of the system.

However there is a separate issue of default settings especially when these defaults are unlikely to be changed by users. I think it is dangerous of omitting security updates by default. Of course (and that can be done in any Linux distro I know) users/admins can disable updates themselves but at least you can hope they know what they are doing.

And the "update breaks business critical application" argument is a strawman for sure. If you have such an important software you must be able to deal with updates one way or another. Either you can rollback quickly or you test beforehand. Your boss might not give you the resources necessary to do that but some businesses don't do backups either. Still this isn't an argument to suppress security updates by default.