More updated package systems that are are independent of ubuntu versions

[Peng Yu]

On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 5:10 PM, Avi Greenbury <lists at avi.co> wrote:
> Peng Yu wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> macports on mac seem to be fairly updated, and the latest version
>> available does not depend on which version of the OS is. But many
>> packages on ubuntu are outdated. Even the lastest release of ubuntu
>> may not have the most updated packages, and many updated packages
>> available in a later version ubuntu is not available to an older
>> version ubuntu. I'm wondering if there is something similar to
>> macports on ubuntu that can give me consistent updated packages across
>> different version of ubuntu OS. Thanks!
>
> Not really. The common way of doing that is to use a PPA for any
> software you wish to run a particularly newer version of. This does
> depend on someone having set up a PPA for your particular app, though.
>
> There's a subtle but important difference here between the way OSX and
> Ubuntu work; there is a well-defined Operating System in OSX and any
> apps running on it do so outside of it, and interace with a pretty
> solid 'edge' of the OS. On Ubuntu, the full contents of the
> repositories are part of the operating system, so updating individual
> packages on their own is modifying the OS slightly, and perhaps making
> it no longer live up to the expectations of some other component.

In that sense, shouldn't a core set of essential packages be defined
for ubuntu as the core OS. Other non essential packages as add-ons, so
that they can be independently updated non matter what version the
core OS is. If there were anything that the should be improved on
ubuntu, this probably should be an important aspect to be improved.
I'm not sure who is directly in charge of this issue so that I can
send the suggestion to.

-- 
Regards,
Peng