No updates for lil apps

[jtfolden]

Thats not very constructive is it, I believe the whole point of this thread is not the discussion to flame poor volunteer package maintainers but raise the issue that maybe there should be some simplified standardized way to .... erm without effort create .deb or .rpm . A way to make it so easy that software developers do not need to have another person to maintain it but only needs two seconds to easily package all dependencies and such into one simple installable file. This is something we might learn from windows. We need to be a society that advances through criticisms ...not "if you dont like it, dont use it". After all we all are humans and we are trying to make this distribution for humans. Don't I have a point here? (hence the name "Ubuntu")

Exactly, the forward thinking approach is to look for solutions, not stick your heads in the sand... and this whole "if you don't like it, don't use it' mentality doesn't fit with the goals of Ubuntu at all, imo.

Comparison with Windows isn't really the point BUT when you're trying to market yourself toward the mainstream this is a valid issue that mainstream operating systems don't have a problem with and it will turn a great number of users away. Frem, please think.

[houstonbofh]

Allow me to join in with the example that brought me here. I am running a server. Servers need to be stable, not the latest and greatest eye candy. The LTS aspect of Dapper appealed to me, and Edgy was not out yet. So I installed Dapper. I have one bit of software that is not a package. It is also one of the main reasons for the server. (vTiger CRM) So I have to go outside the repositories for this. I want to keep everything clean for stability, and upgrades. As it is a server on the internet I want it secure. I installed fail2ban from the repositories. The dapper version is way behind. The Edgy version is still behind. The Feisty version is also behind the Debian version. That is behind the developer version. I can not get the old version to keep people out of my ftp server. The googled solution is "Upgrade. It is now supported out of the box." But I do not want another compiled possibly unstable package on my box. I also do not want to take chances with a security app.

Clif Notes: Latest version does not always mean eye candy.

[jtfolden]

I've not tried a new version of Ubuntu in the last 6 months. Has there been any improvement in this area?

[houstonbofh]

I've not tried a new version of Ubuntu in the last 6 months. Has there been any improvement in this area?

Each distribution is an improvement over the last. But old versions are still forgotten. The answer for me is, upgrade early and often. I will be installing Gutsy on a test server tonight.

For my fail2ban problem, I did a partial backport myself. We will see what it breaks when I get the guts to upgrade the server. This may be soon...

[3rdalbum]

I mean, I can't imagine a world where a new version of Mac OS X is released but you can - generally - only run apps that were available up until it's release day, meanwhile newer apps sit on a server somewhere that can only be run on an OS revision that won't be available for 6-12 months. it seems counter-productive, imo.

Apple does a similar thing with Mac OS X's programs. All new programs run on the latest version of the OS, and maybe the one before that, but those programs are never fully backward compatible with the older versions of OS X. That doesn't make sense to me, although I know exactly why they do it.

At least with Ubuntu, you can find an unofficial Debian package or compile from source. Compiling from source is not difficult, you've just got to practice it a couple of times to get the hang of it.

[3rdalbum]

...raise the issue that maybe there should be some simplified standardized way to .... erm without effort create .deb or .rpm . A way to make it so easy that software developers do not need to have another person to maintain it but only needs two seconds to easily package all dependencies and such into one simple installable file. This is something we might learn from windows.

1. There's a simplified way to create .debs. Doing it "by hand" is simpler than creating an InstallShield on Windows. And you don't need another person to maintain it anymore - Virtualisation is on the desktop. But COMPILING IS NOT DIFFICULT.

Windows only supports one architecture - x86. When Windows supports 12 architectures, and application developers find a way to maintain binaries for all of those, and it's more simple than the Linux way, then we'd have something to learn from Windows. Right now, our way is better, and that's all there is to it.

[marco.catunda]

"stuck" "Stuck!"?

What's wrong with dapper? Its a completely solid distro which will be as solid for the next 2 1/2 years and after.

Is there really any reason you want updated packages? Or just because the version number is higher?

You can always try "prevu" to backport on your own.

For me , update packages is not a problema because we have backport project.

But I have a big problema using Dapper release. The kernel of cd installer is too old.
I bought a new hardware and the old kernel (Dapper Release) didn't find any HD installed, but the new
kernel (Feisty Release) found. So, How can I deal with this issue?

I think all distro have to have two kinds of releases, one for core system (kernel, glib, ...) and other for apps.