Upgrading programs

[D. Michael McIntyre]

On Sunday 10 June 2007, Neil Winchurst wrote:
> python. When I installed Edgy I got version 2.4.4 of python. I see now
> that the latest version is 2.5. However I never see that come up as a
> choice when I am told that there are some upgrades available.

A distro is a snapshot of different versions of packages that were all working 
together in harmony at the time of release.  Package updates are intended to 
fix security problems, address bugs that were discovered after release, etc., 
but they should never change the version of a package without some really 
unusual cause.  Basically, the only time a version will change is when 
version x.y was riddled with gaping security holes, and version x.y+1 fixed 
the problems in a way that could not be readily back-ported to version x.y.

Some variation on this theme crops up very often around here.  "KDE released 
version $MY_DISTRO_VERSION+3 and I want to get the new packages through my 
package manager.  Help!"

That's just now how Linux distros work--not just K/Ubuntu--unless you are 
running something like Debian Sid, which is perpetually "unstable," and in 
constant flux.

So, the first thing you have to ask yourself is why you need Python 5.  Do you 
really need it?  Why?  If you have a real reason for needing it (eg. you're a 
Python developer, and you can't live another minute without the very latest 
version), then your best bet may be to build it from source.
-- 
D. Michael McIntyre