Idea #4581: Team that works to keep all software in repos up to date.

Written by bradwjensen the 14 Mar 08 at 06:47. Category: Multimedia.
Related to: Nothing/Others. Status: New

Description

Many times I see a new exciting or simple version Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Etc. out, but I know it will be forever until it shows up in the repositories.. Sometimes until a new version of Ubuntu comes out.

I believe Ubuntu should have a team of people which do not much more than make sure as much of the extra user software is up to date with what's coming out..

So when Firefox beta 5 comes out (say, in the morning) it should likely be in the Repos by the second night if not sooner..

Create a way for users and software creators to contact the team with a simple Instant Message or E-mail stating they have a new update.

:)

Tags: (none)

Attachments

No attachments.

Duplicates

[Report a duplicate and merge its votes to this idea]

Comments

jiu wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 06:58

I think there's a limit to what you can expect in terms of free support. It is really over the top to ask that Canonical provide new packages on the same day. Besides since they are commercially supporting the software in the repositories, they need to run some QA check before posting them. So -1. If you want the latest packages, learning to compile them from source seems like the way to go.

Chipmaster wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 08:45

Sorry, but it's clear you don't have any understanding of how the repos work. The stable releases of ubuntu are pretty locked down in terms of new versions of software. These are usually only upgraded for security concerns. There is good reason for this as companies that run servers or even most end users don't want their system to break from an upgrade.

If you want developer versions of software and don't mind a system that WILL break, use hardy (or the prelease version of ubuntu at the current time). For instance when Firefox Beta 4 came out, I had it installed from the hardy repos the day of.

Now if you want the best of both worlds, you can sort of do it with ubuntu. You'll have to look into backporting. The basic idea is that you install the stable version of ubuntu and download beta versions of software from the unstable version (and all dependencies). Debian's testing branch has a decent balance of instability and newness, so you might want to check that out as well.

tl;dr Research before you post next. Thumbs Down.

nick83ola wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 11:51

I think that launchpad is that thing...

motang wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 17:59

I would like this very much like keeping up with the latest Pidgin, or latest Firefox.

I was going to post something like this but then I saw this one so I am glad I went through the posts instead of making a new one. :-)

Eldmannen wrote on the 15 Mar 08 at 02:28

Yeah, I really hate to have to wait for fresh software to hit the repositories.

It makes me feel like a second-class citizens when all my friends on Windows can get the latest software, but I have to wait because I use Ubuntu. It feels like getting punished.

Post your comment