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Currently, Updates tab is planned to be first visible in plug in center. However number of available updates is frequently low and updates panel will be empty. It's not good to have first visible panel empty.
I don't think this will be an issue - when the user opens up the Plugin Manager, he will be presented with the last opened tab. He will get to the Update tab either by clicking on the update icon in the status bar (in which case it won't be empty, because that's what's the whole update icon scenario about) or by clicking on the 'Update tab' manually. And in that case, yes, it might be empty, but I think that it is a regular state when there are no updates available. I don't really see it as an issue - I am closing it as 'WONTFIX' for now and we will see what the future brings...