To address your immediate problem:
You could try out [https://parabolagnulinux.org/ Parabola], a rolling
release, all-free distro. It takes a significant amount of work to install,
and it requires some occasional maintenance to keep it in working order, but
you'll always have the latest software.
You could also get the Trisquel 6.0 alpha from
[http://devel.trisquel.info/makeiso/iso/]. The latest image is from
2012-12-1.
I agree that it's frustrating to have to wait so long for new software.
Here's the situation as I understand it:
quidam, the project leader, has a day job. He can't afford to work on
Trisquel full time.
I assume it requires some manual labor to pass on updates from Ubuntu to the
Trisquel repo. This means that the faster he releases a new Trisquel, the
more time he has to spend on updates.
I remember quidam saying sometime in the past that he waits 3 months after
the Ubuntu release before he does any work at all on the next Trisquel. This
gives Ubuntu a chance to fix the major bugs so he has a more stable distro to
work with.
If anyone else knows more than I do, feel free to chime in.
