When downloading updates, Software 3.12.2 shows the label Checking for Updates under a spinner[1]. This is problematic because that implies Software is only looking to see if updates exist, and many users are going to assume it's broken if it takes longer than a couple of seconds. It's really silly for the check to take five minutes because Software is secretly downloading everything in the background.

Short of implementing the design where download progress is shown separately for each application -- which is probably a bad idea anyway since virtually all updates are OS updates, on Fedora and on other distros -- I see two good solutions:

a) Just remove that label and show only the spinner.
b) Switch the label to Preparing Update (or Downloading Update[2]) as soon as Software determines that an update exists. (Aside: it'd be good to show completion percentage here.)

This is similar to Bug #728142, but that bug is for checking for updates locally, while this bug is for downloading.

[1] If memory serves, it's been a while since I've done this.
[3] But not Making Available Offline Update. That's a joke, tee-hee.