I am using Xfce, but not sure whether the question is peculiar to Xfce.
A word on motivation. From the article linked I’ve got the idea that using GUI to update may break the system. I intend to follow the steps there outlined. In the mean time, I don’t want to be offered an opportunity to just click and update.
I’m pretty sure those applications have options for settings if/what you are notified.
But … If you dont want them just remove them (I certainly dont have any installed).
By updating your system. No, seriously, I mean it. But see below.
The update notifier won’t let you update your system without entering the administrative password, so there’s always that failsafe for in case you blindly click the notifier icon.
The proper way to update is to then log out of the GUI completely, log in at a tty and run the update process from there. You typically need to reboot after updating anyway, because if it’s a big and bundled update — as opposed to just a few packages — then there will commonly be a kernel update included, and then the only way to be safe is to cleanly reboot your system after updating.
And then the notifier icon won’t show any updates anymore.
Thank you. I used sudo packman -Ss [package name] and saw that all four were installed.
As for the probable availability of options, I could get to options for Pamac (the icon in the panel) by right-clicking it.
But how would I get one of the four packages you mention to present itself to me (so I might check for options).
I tried using the package name as command in terminal and entering it into the search field you get from clicking the bottom-left button of the monitor (Manjaro logo), but these two things didn’t work.
Apologies for the extreme beginner nature of the questions.
ADDING LATER
As far as my original question goes, going to GUI Package Manager and unticking “check for updates” in its options took care of both the arrows in the picture. Thanks again.
For anybody wanting to do that: Manjaro logo at bottom-left of monitor > search for “software” > click “Add/Remove Software” > three dots toward top right > Preferences > supply password > untick “Check for updates”.
Hm, that’s somewhat alarming. I just did an update. (135 things to update two weeks after install!) But when I restarted and logged in, there was a notification about new kernels available.
I saw that I had the latest LTS, with 3 non-LTS above it and a bunch of lower version kernels below.
So I thought “updating” left the kernel alone, and on this important topic I could take my sweet time to get up-to-speed and do any kernel updating consciously at a time of own choosing.
But you say that an ordinary update could update the kernel for me? Maybe my sweet time can’t be too long. Thanks.
Yes, but that’s not the update notifier; that’s the Manjaro Settings Manager, and it can be set to only notify you if the kernel you’re running is EOL.
And that is the best setting, in my humble opinion, so keep that one and disable the other kernel notifications.
No, when I myself am talking of a kernel update, then I am referring to the patch level of the kernel being updated, not to a kernel version bump. If you’re on an LTS kernel, then you’re better off not jumping onto higher kernel versions which are not LTS kernels, because non-LTS kernels have a limited shelf life anyway.
Only the patch level for the currently installed kernel(s), e.g. from 6.1.23 to 6.1.29. It will not be an update from, say, 6.1 to 6.2 or later.
But that (i.e. not ticking “Only notify LTS kernels”) would imply that there is no hurry on getting on with a new LTS? Presumably a new LTS comes out, and after an overlap (i.e. a time segment in which both the old and the new LTS are being supported) the old one goes out of support? I don’t want to switch to a new LTS when it comes out or reasonably soon after?
There isn’t, no, because all LTS kernels are still supported for years, and just because there’s a new LTS kernel coming out — the most recent one is 6.1 — doesn’t mean that this would be a mature kernel. It only means that Linus Torvalds or Greg Kroah-Hartman decided that this is the kernel whose code base lends itself best to continued support. But even then still, new LTS kernels still need to mature for a while before they become as robust as the older LTS kernels.
Below you will find the table with the currently still supported LTS kernels, including the date they were introduced and the expected end-of-life for each of them, but do note that this expected end-of-life can always be moved farther into the future if the kernel developers feel that maintaining any particular LTS kernel continues to benefit users who might have issues with later kernels.
You don’t have to — that’s the whole point of having LTS versions of any particular software component.
For instance, KDE Plasma is currently at version 5.27, which is also an LTS release, and it will continue being supported by KDE upstream for quite a while still, while in the meantime they also keep on improving the new Plasma 6 that was recently released.
No, seriously, I mean it. But see below. 
