I recently installed a token version (16GB) of Ubuntu 16.04 in a Virtualbox, just to check it out and generally review its performance. The host OS is Mint Cinnamon 17.3 and the computer is a Dell Vostro laptop with a 2.0 GHz Celeron processor, if any of that is relevant. I installed it using a live internet connection, so it should have been fully up to date from the start (or should it?), and set it up to check for important security updates and recommended ones. This evening, about half an hour into a session, the software update manager informed me that updates were available and would amount to about 6 MB in total. Assuming this would be a fairly minor business involving a few tweaks, I gave it the go-ahead, only to find that it took at least twice as long as the initial installation, perhaps around 25 minutes - from the information supplied it seemed as if the whole OS, and more, was being replaced. By way of comparison, when I updated my Antix 16 system for the first time by way of an apt-get dist-upgrade, the whole process took about two minutes. Can I look forward to this sort of pantomime every time an update is announced for Ubuntu 16.04?

it might be that the computer is simply overwhelmed by running a HEAVY Linux distro INSIDE A VM.
please post full specs.

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Not sure what constitutes 'full specs', but here's a bit more info: Dell Vostro machine has 4GB RAM, and a 320 GB Western Digital hard drive (5400 RPM), which is occupied by Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 (Root Partition 100 GB, Swap 6.4 GB, Home Partition 214 GB). I allocated 1024 MB RAM to the Ubuntu system in Virtualbox, which also has 1.1 GB swap space. In addition there's an AntiX system on a second Virtualbox which also has 1024 GB RAM. Presumably the AntiX set up doesn't take resources away from the Ubuntu OS or the host OS while it's not running?

Ubuntu recommends minimum 2gb of system memory. You are choking it by only allocating 1gb.

https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

AntiX is a better choice than Ubuntu for your hardware, in my opinion.

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Thanks, that makes sense to me and I really should have checked out the requirements of Ubuntu in advance - I'm a newcomer to Virtualbox and tend to be wrongfooted by its low 'recommended' RAM settings. Presumably if I allocated 2 GB to Ubuntu on this machine, then my host OS might be gasping for breath? Probably better to run Ubuntu in Virtualbox on my desktop machine which has 8 GB RAM...... The wider issue of updating straight after an installation is still of interest though. I used to believe that if a live internet link was maintained throughout the process (as encouraged by distros like Mint and Ubuntu), then one would start with a fully up to date system, as all the latest updates would be downloaded and integrated into the installation. Lately I'm not so sure (hence the "Or should it?" qualifier in the original post): I used an internet link the last two times I installed Mint, but still found that over 100 updates were immediately available once I set up the update manager - the actual updating process only took a few minutes, but maybe that's because I confined it to Level 1 and 2 updates - if I'd included up to Level 5, perhaps the experience would have been similar to the Ubuntu one?

linux mint has an interesting updating process that differs somewhat from the ubuntu method.
that might be a reason why you have updates right after installing.
if i were you i would strictly stick to safe updates (i believe that's level 1 and 2) for the time being.

also, running a terminal command like "apt-get upgrade" or "apt upgrade" is equivalent to installing ALL level updates. 1 through 5. not recommended on linux mint.

there's also heap mighty confusion between "update" and "upgrade".
"update", on a classical debian system, means to bring the software sources up-to-date (NOT the software!).
"upgrade", on a classical debian system, means to install all software updates (i guess i should call them upgrades then).

otoh, i think mint's gui updater does not use the term "upgrade" at all, which means that software upgrades are called updates?
like i said, confusing.
but as long as you stick to the gui tools and/or ask for clarification when given the advice to use terminal commands, you shouldn't worry.

PS:
in future, could you please make an effort to structure your text better. it's really hard to read. thanks.

I guess you could test networking speeds on dsl speed test site.

The only time I've had issues with updates is when there are a lot and I don't have much free space.


Both of those distro's have a resource monitor to see what might be holding it back.

If you are using a proxy then you may have issues with apt (aptitude) and other updater programs.

Postscript: just installed Ubuntu 16.04 to a Virtualbox on my desktop machine (Windows 8.1, i5 processor, 8 GB RAM, 1TB hard drive), allocated it 2048 MB of RAM. Within 5 minutes of installation, it offered me 135 MB of updates, which were installed in around 4 minutes. No complaints about this, will just get on with using and enjoying the system now LOL. Thanks everyone for your contributions.

Thanks for the update and solution.

yes, updating the system is a resource intensive task. glad the extra ram solved it.