Updating all the software on your system can be a pain, but with Linux it doesn't have to be that way. We'll show you how to combine the apt package management system with a task scheduler to automatically update your system.

If you've been using Linux for even a short time you'll surely have experienced the wonders of having a package management system at your disposal. For Debian and Ubuntu users the package manager you get is the excellent apt-get system. apt-get makes installing a new program (e.g. xclock, a graphical clock) as simple as:

% apt-get install xclock

That's nice, but the real reason apt is so useful is that updating your entire system all at once is just as easy:

% apt-get update
...
% apt-get upgrade
...

You can make things even easier, however.