software updates repos vs build myself
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hallo,
could someone please explain to me why the software provided in the distro's repos sometimes seem a bit outdated? this seems (to me) not being a trisquel specific issue, but rather any linux distros, ubuntu, opensuse...
right now i'm still busy with setting up my MacBook properly for dual systems OS X and Trisquel. it looks i need to work with gdisk.
from what comes by installing gdisk through the trisquel repos, the version is 0.6.14 which was released in January 2011. Since then nine(!) more recent versions have been developed and released. right now the most recent version seems 0.8.5 released in May 2012.
My questions are:
* can i just download that newer source code, compile and use? (safely without breaking my Trisquel install)
* when, how do the updates find their way into the trisquel repos?
thanks,
zancudo/mono
I am a translator!
Trisquel's repositories are based on an Ubuntu version which is at least 5 months old, hence the software becomes outdated. If you need newer software you can search for a PPA, compile from source (might not work due to old libraries) or use a distro with updated software (e.g. Parabola which is based on Arch and is a "rolling release" meaning it is always up to date).
Trisquel 5.5 is based on Ubuntu 11.10(October 2011). The next version(6.0 LTS - long-term support) will be based on 12.04(April 2012).
That is, the software repository for version 5.5 (except Abrowser) were launched in October 2011 or before.
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zacundo as far as I know, the reason they fall out of date is for stability reasons. companies normally prefer this.
before making a release they freeze the soft on the repos at a point where you are sure it works. to make an update you have to make sure it will not break some other dependency.
To avoid breaking any dependencies, you can also install everything (including new build dependencies) in a separate directory using the "--prefix" option.
I still use Trisquel 5.0 (dagda), but I want to use the newest release of GIMP, so I build its newer dependencies, glib, gtk+, babl, gegl, cairo, atk, gdk-pixbuf, pango, pixman, with "--prefix=/opt/gimp".
>software provided in the distro's repos sometimes seem a bit outdated? this seems (to me) not being a trisquel specific issue, but rather any linux distros
A GNU/Linux distribution is a collection of packages. The outdatedness happens partly because different software packages releases occur at different times and then there's the distro release date, these all seldomly (never) coincide.
Also, certain legacy operating systems handle library dependencies differently, shipping and depending upon static packages instead of dynamic, leading to dozens of versions of a library, most of them outdated with all related vulnerabilities and instabilities and quirks.
Think of it as extra testing in real life environments. Or jump over to a rolling release if that's your cup of tea.
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