Thanks all for your insight and experience reports. Dell's vote of confidence etc. gives much credibility to Linux and Ubuntu on the desktop. So that may well be my next bandwagon too.
For now pinning (thanks Gustin) sounds doable. This howto http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html and blogs say to expect snags, but that common workarounds can fix things. In the past out of necessity I have had to compile video card drivers (and hunt down unresolved types etc.) But those ventures can mean much lost productivity, risk and time consumed learning to fix a broken config. Nonetheless compared to proprietary alternatives, Linux is a breath of fresh air ;-) Gustin Johnson wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > It really depends on what you want. If stability is at a premium, then > stick to Debian stable. The cost of this choice, is of course that your > packages are not the newest. You can add sources from testing and > unstable as long as you do something called pinning. This is not the > easiest solution but it is not a bad middle ground. This is what I do > with my eee-pc to add a greater variety and more recent versions of > packages. > > I do not use the GUI apt front ends, so some of them may not properly > support apt pinning. You should RTFM for your apt front end. > > More info on the apt system, check out the following link. Of > particular interest is section 3.8 How to maintain a mixed system. > http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html > > My fist choice for regular desktops and laptops is Ubuntu, since they > keep their packages reasonably up to date. I find that there can be a > few more rough edges that you don't usually see in Debian stable. Also, > improvements from Ubuntu get folded into Debian, of course it takes time > to filter down to the stable branch. > > Hth, > > John Clarke wrote: >> Hi, >> >> Could someone help clarify for me what my options are to upgrade to an >> app version that my distro's package manager does not support? >> >> To illustrate my question and goal: last April I installed Debian 4.0, >> whose Synaptic tool supports OpenOffice 2.0 >> >> But with OpenOffice at 2.3, how can get my paws on that current release? >> >> The way I see it my options are, in order of effort: >> >> 1) wait for next Debian stable release >> - unspecified release date >> - I assume/hope next release will install over 4.0, but expect distro >> will still lag a given app's current release >> >> 2) in Debian 4.0 uninstall OpenOffice 2.0 and install 2.3 >> - somehow use for eg. Synaptic to advance distro to support a more >> current app version >> >> 3) Switch to a more progressive distro like Ubuntu, with routine >> releases in April and October. >> - best in the long run, to keep up with current app release >> >> Have I missed anything or can anyone shed light on whether 2) is doable >> and routine or instead impractical and inadvisable? Are >> package managers such as Synaptic (I believe Ubuntu's Adept uses the >> same underlying APT tool), or some other tool(?) intended to do 2) or am >> I out of luck? >> >> Thanks for any recommendations, pointers! >> >> John >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> clug-talk mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca >> Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) >> **Please remove these lines when replying > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) > Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org > > iD8DBQFHN5o6wRXgH3rKGfMRAifvAJ97U5vy1gLJoK+MlfQWsPiLC85rDwCcD2bb > 28d5uFQj4nKIb1PZ7/jq2Zs= > =g9+f > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying > _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
