Kubuntu & Muon

Kubuntu is an Ubuntu derivative. Information for Kubuntu can be found on the Kubuntu homepage. The Kubuntu 11.10 release notes says:

Muon Suite 1.2

The Kubuntu team is proud to present our new suite of tools for
installing and managing software. Installing of .deb packages,
updating, and software management is all part of this new, integrated
suite, specifically designed to work with Debian style package
management...

The kubuntu-desktop package is recommending (installing as default):

• muon, package manager for KDE




• muon-installer, utility for browsing, installing, and removing applications




• muon-notifier, update notifier for KDE

The package muon is also recommending the muon-updater, an update manager for KDE.

The latest information of the Muon can be found from the developer's blog.

Apt - upgrade and dist-upgrade

The "not upgraded" packages could need to install some new packages. The "upgrade" action can't do this.

The apt manual page (man apt-get):

upgrade will

upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages
currently installed...under no circumstances are currently installed
packages removed, or packages not already installed retrieved and
installed. New versions of currently installed packages that cannot be
upgraded without changing the install status of another package will
be left at their current version...

dist-upgrade will

dist-upgrade in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also
intelligently handles changing dependencies with new versions of
packages; apt-get has a "smart" conflict resolution system, and it
will attempt to upgrade the most important packages at the expense of
less important ones if necessary.

So, the apt-get dist-upgrade command may remove some packages...