"Up-to-date? Hardly ever. Last time I tried (3-4 months back) the new version of Firefox came out around a week after the official release -- and that's popular. Some of the more obscure pieces of code (d4x) may not have been updated for months."Ubuntu refreshes nearly all it's packages every six months. Some get higher priority, either because of security fixes or major bug fixes. Sadly a few do fall through the cracks, and unless someone points what fell through in a manner visible to those with the power to fix it, change is unlikely. As an aside, d4x is up to date currently in Edgy, and because no new releases have been made to it since, the same version is in Feisty.Many found the six month releases a refreshing pace, but if you feel you need newer packages Debian unstable is probably for you. It's where the vast majority of Ubuntu packages come from anyways, and there's no artificial delays for "releases." You also still get apt-get, though you probably aren't sold on it."If you install Fx from within apt-get, you cannot update it from within the app. As far as I can see, this is the rule with most apps."Honestly, these things aren't that desirable. You don't want regular users being able to upgrade applications in general, as its a good vector for cracking. And I don't think it's a great idea for every app developer to re-implement the wheel. Every app that does this increases the risk that one of these is broken. And god forbid you break someone's plugins (this is why firefox doesn't get backported in Ubuntu -- breaking adblock etc makes users angry). Apt-get and friends provide a centralized way to implement this without making your app larger or a security risk. The fact that so many apps have this feature is due to Windows being such a horrible platform for software deployment. Even Microsoft realizes this and uses Windows Update to deploy fixes to the OS, and now Office as well."If you download a .deb file of the newest version, and try to run it, God forbid you run into dependency issues."That's indeed a problem. Not everyone creates .debs intelligently, and Ubuntu and other could stand to do a lot more education to developers on the subject. Some Ubuntu developers try to beat the mantra "don't use 3rd party packages" into their heads, but I think these developers are missing how Debian / Ubuntu gains new developers. Often times the upstream developer is also the Debian maintainer, so teaching software devs how to make these packages can lead to new maintainers for Debian / Ubuntu. "Many times, the only alternative is to compile from scratch (since the newest version is not available in the reps, and the person does not provide a build for ubuntu)."There's another alternative here, that you're missing. Build your own package. It's actually fairly simple compared to compiling from scratch. You install the build dependencies via apt-get, and then download the current source from apt-get. Drop in the new source, then rebuild the package (I forget that command). No messing around with missing development headers and libraries, they've all been specified for you. You can easily uninstall it without having to leave "make uninstall" lying around, and if apt-get detects that the official repository has a higher version number than your custom build it will prompt to upgrade to that, should you find yourself unable to keep on top of all the software you've custom installed. "Sorry, but apt-get is far from being the best solution."I'm not sure what you think the best solution is, but I hope I've presented a few new angles on why apt-get is beloved.
This is a really old Gnome/Linux bug - I remember having to do this on Red Hat Desktop and Fedora years ago. I completely forgot about it when I switched to Ubuntu last year. Good tip. Does speed things up.
sp4rkerMar 24, 2007
For me as well it very notably boosts application launch on my edgy amd64 box
Closed AccountMar 24, 2007
*feels like a noob* whats my hostname??
jlduggerMar 24, 2007
"Up-to-date? Hardly ever. Last time I tried (3-4 months back) the new version of Firefox came out around a week after the official release -- and that's popular. Some of the more obscure pieces of code (d4x) may not have been updated for months."Ubuntu refreshes nearly all it's packages every six months. Some get higher priority, either because of security fixes or major bug fixes. Sadly a few do fall through the cracks, and unless someone points what fell through in a manner visible to those with the power to fix it, change is unlikely. As an aside, d4x is up to date currently in Edgy, and because no new releases have been made to it since, the same version is in Feisty.Many found the six month releases a refreshing pace, but if you feel you need newer packages Debian unstable is probably for you. It's where the vast majority of Ubuntu packages come from anyways, and there's no artificial delays for "releases." You also still get apt-get, though you probably aren't sold on it."If you install Fx from within apt-get, you cannot update it from within the app. As far as I can see, this is the rule with most apps."Honestly, these things aren't that desirable. You don't want regular users being able to upgrade applications in general, as its a good vector for cracking. And I don't think it's a great idea for every app developer to re-implement the wheel. Every app that does this increases the risk that one of these is broken. And god forbid you break someone's plugins (this is why firefox doesn't get backported in Ubuntu -- breaking adblock etc makes users angry). Apt-get and friends provide a centralized way to implement this without making your app larger or a security risk. The fact that so many apps have this feature is due to Windows being such a horrible platform for software deployment. Even Microsoft realizes this and uses Windows Update to deploy fixes to the OS, and now Office as well."If you download a .deb file of the newest version, and try to run it, God forbid you run into dependency issues."That's indeed a problem. Not everyone creates .debs intelligently, and Ubuntu and other could stand to do a lot more education to developers on the subject. Some Ubuntu developers try to beat the mantra "don't use 3rd party packages" into their heads, but I think these developers are missing how Debian / Ubuntu gains new developers. Often times the upstream developer is also the Debian maintainer, so teaching software devs how to make these packages can lead to new maintainers for Debian / Ubuntu. "Many times, the only alternative is to compile from scratch (since the newest version is not available in the reps, and the person does not provide a build for ubuntu)."There's another alternative here, that you're missing. Build your own package. It's actually fairly simple compared to compiling from scratch. You install the build dependencies via apt-get, and then download the current source from apt-get. Drop in the new source, then rebuild the package (I forget that command). No messing around with missing development headers and libraries, they've all been specified for you. You can easily uninstall it without having to leave "make uninstall" lying around, and if apt-get detects that the official repository has a higher version number than your custom build it will prompt to upgrade to that, should you find yourself unable to keep on top of all the software you've custom installed. "Sorry, but apt-get is far from being the best solution."I'm not sure what you think the best solution is, but I hope I've presented a few new angles on why apt-get is beloved.
urbanvoyeurMar 24, 2007
This is a really old Gnome/Linux bug - I remember having to do this on Red Hat Desktop and Fedora years ago. I completely forgot about it when I switched to Ubuntu last year. Good tip. Does speed things up.
mbupMar 24, 2007
The hostname is your computer name. You'll se if if you open the terminal.. user@host $
sirdazMar 25, 2007
Your comment? Will do.
benutneMar 25, 2007
Seems to speed things up on my old Toshiba laptop. I don't have any concrete evidence, but it just "feels" like apps load quicker.
mhmdkhamisOct 13, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://girls.paramegsoft.com">http://girls.paramegsoft.com</a><a class="user" href="http://www.paramegsoft.com">http://www.paramegsoft.com</a>