1) The following is completely false:
Updating to 0.16.3 from 0.16.0-2 for a non sophisticated Linux user may be prohibitively complex.
This assumes that: a) Everyone uses Linux. b) That people using Linux don't have an easy method for updating. This is false; most non-sophisticated (if not ALL such users) are going to be using something like Ubuntu or Mint which has PPA and updating is trivial.
Updating Windows and Mac is very trivial. If you know how to install Bitcoin Core, then you should know how to update it.
Plus most Linux users have always used or are always using the command line. I believe a simple step by step "howto" guide should be easy to follow for anyone who uses Linux.
Anyone have any thoughts or info on how much of a focus streamlining updates across different OS's and Linux Dsitributions currently is?
2) Updates can never be automatic for a decentralized system as such.
Ever adding something like a 'update available' notification system can open up more attack vectors and is (as always) prone to abuse.I was about to ask about that. Would it have been better, in this instance, if the alert system was still at the developers' disposal?
Non updated full nodes could conceivably put the entire network at risk in the future.
I don't agree. If a user isn't accepting transactions on a node or mining with it, there is no particularly urgent reason to upgrade. There are plenty of upgraded nodes on the network now.
But is that enough? There is about 80% of nodes that have'nt done the upgrade.