Update icon and software manager suggestions

Hi! I think Trisquel has improved a lot, and I would like to write here the two changes that I think could be important for widening Trisquel adoption (aka how to make it more user friendly).
1)Easier software manager - This is the most important of the two. With a very easy to use and nice to see software manager (like the one of Linux Mint) it would very obvious for non experienced people to install and uninstall software. Moreover, the packages handling could be improved, i.e. I tried to uninstall Abrowser, but the Add/Remove Applications app says that I need to use Synaptic because it has dependencies.. Well, this could be handled automatically, making things easier for the user. Another thing about this "software manager": it's not intuitive that in order to uninstall a software you have to uncheck it and then "apply the changes"..
2)An update monitor on the panel - Do you know the icon used by Mint to report that updates are available? I think the same thing could be used on Trisquel, so the user is visually notified of new updates, and they are easily visible when opening the update manager clicking on the icon. From there, users could be able the varies settings and preferences. This would also help to have more updated systems, which means more security for the users.

In conclusion, I think these are two changes which would improve the user experience a lot. Thinking of development efforts, it shouldn't be much if you consider that this apps are released as free software by the Mint team.
This is just my opinion, but I hope you will consider these two factors for future development. I think Trisquel has so much potential, not only for the free software experienced users!