[Wylug-help] Should apt be running constantly?

[Howard Close]

I am running ubuntu 10.10. (I tried 11.04 but did not like Unity at all !!!)
I have noticed that a short while after start-up things seem to be running
rather slow.
I find that background processes are using about 50% of my processor. Top
reveals that this is almost exclusively caused by apt-get.
If I do nothing then this state of affairs continues for hours and hours -
indeed I dont know if it ever stops - it certainly is still running over 6
hours later.
Is this normal behaviour for apt? What is it doing to consume so much of my
processing power?
Also with nothing else running I note intermittent low activity on my
internet connection - but perhaps this is send-census or
popularity-contest??
Because I was concerned I have taken to killing apt-get shortly after it
starts and considered removing it from cron - but presumably it needs to run
to update my system?
Any advice or information would be gratefully received

Howard Close
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