Ubuntu

Outdated applications for Precise

Asked by Star Man

I recently read on an article that the recommended Ubuntu editions for environment purposes are the LTS ones. Until April 2014, the current one is Precise. It'll be maintained for five years, in contrast with the minor editions, like Saucy, maintained for only nine months.

However, Precise's software repository has many outdated applications, whose versions were freezed almost two years ago. Examples are The GIMP, LibreOffice, VLC or Audacity, among many others.

Updating the system every six months is really annoying, that's why some of us stay only with the LTS editions. But doing so, we are missing many improvements new versions of our most used applications bring to the market. And we're not talking even about security issues.

Would it be possible for the repositories of the LTS editions to have updated software? If maintaining too many versions of software is cumbersome, maybe versions could start be freezed when a new LTS edition comes out. As an example, Precise repository could freeze it's releases when Trusty comes in this April.

Could it be possible for a change like this to happen?

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
actionparsnip
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Best actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

The LTS releases concentrate on stability and being rock solid. Packages may be old but they work and work well. The minor releases will push for the newer packages more and users can report bugs and so forth til the next LTS when all that work will, again, be used to concentrate on stability. And so on.
This is how Ubuntu has always worked. You are free to build your own debs or use PPAs butnLTS releases will not upgrade a package without a tonne of testing as well as a significan bug or security fix in the newer version.
If you want a rolling release distribution which will be less stable but be up to date then Debian may suit your needs.

Revision history for this message
Star Man (starman-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#2

Thanks actionparsnip, that solved my question.