Difference between LL Update/Upgrade tools & apt / apt-get / aptitude / synaptic

[mezzmer]

There are many package tools:

The graphical tools for Update/Upgrade that are available from the Linux Lite menus
and
the Higher Level Debian tools: apt / apt-get / aptitude / synaptic
and
dpkg

Can someone please tell me are all these tools just front ends for dpkg?

Do they all use the same repo lists, or is there a possibility that they may end up using different lists and damage an installation?

Since there are different ways to accomplish the same task, it would be good to know if they are all equivalent/safe, or if there are methods that should be avoided.

In particular keeping up with security updates...  apt-get update / apt-upgrade OK or NOT?

Should I use apt or apt-get or doesn't it matter?

What about aptitude (command line) or synaptic (gui) - at the moment they seem to indicate 4 upgradeable packages (all part of python).  I don't care about them on this VM, but if I did care would be nice to be able to update. 

It seems at the moment those updates are included in all method, but the graphical tools want to update a larger list of packages.

Can someone offer some insight on the workflow regarding updating and how updates/upgrades get migrated from Ubuntu to Linux Lite.

Any input/references etc. will be much appreciated.


---------- Reference Material for the Above ----------
Output from apt-get upgrade (not run) - same results as aptitude/synaptic

Code:

linuxlite@lite:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
[sudo] password for linuxlite:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  cpp-5 g++-5 gcc-5 gcc-5-base libasan2 libatomic1 libcc1-0 libcilkrts5 libgcc-5-dev libgfortran3 libgomp1 libitm1 liblsan0 libmpx0
  libpython-stdlib libquadmath0 libstdc++-5-dev libstdc++6 libtsan0 libubsan0 python python-gdbm python-minimal
23 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 30.2 MB of archives.
After this operation, 24.6 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.

Result from Install Updates (Shortcut on the main menu):

Code:

Updates Available for your System

Click Update Now to install the updates listed below or Cancel to exit.

    List of available Updates
1 :    Name: libpython-stdlib INSTALLED: 2.7.11-1 AVAILABLE: 2.7.12-1~16.04
2 :    Name: python-minimal INSTALLED: 2.7.11-1 AVAILABLE: 2.7.12-1~16.04
3 :    Name: python INSTALLED: 2.7.11-1 AVAILABLE: 2.7.12-1~16.04
4 :    Name: libcc1-0 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
5 :    Name: libgomp1 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
6 :    Name: libitm1 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
7 :    Name: libatomic1 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
8 :    Name: libasan2 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
9 :    Name: liblsan0 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
10 :    Name: libtsan0 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
11 :    Name: libubsan0 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
12 :    Name: libcilkrts5 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
13 :    Name: libmpx0 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
14 :    Name: libquadmath0 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
15 :    Name: g++-5 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
16 :    Name: libstdc++-5-dev INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
17 :    Name: libgcc-5-dev INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
18 :    Name: gcc-5 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
19 :    Name: cpp-5 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
20 :    Name: libgfortran3 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
21 :    Name: gcc-5-base INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
22 :    Name: libstdc++6 INSTALLED: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 AVAILABLE: 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.9
23 :    Name: python-gdbm INSTALLED: 2.7.11-2 AVAILABLE: 2.7.12-1~16.04

[TheDead]

Hi,

One of the features of Linux Lite is that it has the graphical tool so you dont have to mess around the command line.
The Linux Team deals with what to update or not and must say they do a splendid job on this.
I played around with the different terminal command and broke my installations more then once so be careful... or just use the graphical user interface.

You can choose to change/update the Linux Kernel with another Lite tool, but I would only recommend you this option if something doesnt work (i.e. network card, etc.)

Personnaly, I would only use apt-get upgrade on other Linux distros.

What is in synaptics is usually the standard/stable version of software.
Not all software are available in there and you could sometime have to add a PPA repository. User/sites will usually give the terminal instruction for this. Its a few lines. (add repository, do an apt-get update, then apt-get install)

Cheers!