Installing applications from outside the repositories

[Eric Weir]

I posted this query on the Ubuntu forums over a week ago and still 
haven't gotten a response, so I thought I'd give it a try here.

Recently I installed an "notetaking" application -- Zim -- from the 
repository. I think it's going to meet my needs, but the version I have 
is significantly out of date and the most recent version has significant 
additional features.

I started an install of the most recent version for Ubuntu from the 
developer's website, but aborted, [1] because it's described as being 
for Gutsy and I'm still running Feisty, and [2] because as the required 
perl library packages were about to be installed I got a message saying 
that older versions were available from the repositories and 
recommending that I install them.

So my questions. Can I do any harm by installing the Gutsy version of 
the app on my Feisty system? Likewise regarding the unsupported libraries?

Thanks much in advance.

Sincerely,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Weir
Decatur, GA USA
eeweir at bellsouth.net