a list of alternate repositories

[Skaperen]

does anyone know of a list of alternate repositories that offer alternate packages or package versions for older Ubuntu (still in support), such as 16.04 LTS, that the official repositories do not have? for example i was looking for one that had a more recent version of Python (such as 3.7.0).

[oldos2er]

https://launchpad.net/~deadsnakes/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+packages

Personally I'd be concerned installing a later python version would mess something up.

[TheFu]

does anyone know of a list of alternate repositories that offer alternate packages or package versions for older Ubuntu (still in support), such as 16.04 LTS, that the official repositories do not have? for example i was looking for one that had a more recent version of Python (such as 3.7.0).

Anyone can make a PPA. You can make one, if you like. That makes having a complete list of repos effectively impossible. The best way to find them that I know is google. But only PPAs from trusted people/groups should be used. Avoid random PPAs. Reputation is really the only way I know to determine if someone is worthy of trust. If you wouldn't give the PPA owner root on your Linux machine, then you shouldn't use the PPA. Using a PPA is effectively providing the packaging people with local root.

As oldos2er says, if you want a different version of any scripting language, then you should NOT replace it at the OS level, but make a separate are just for that version. Most scripting languages have a way to install 2,5,20 versions of their software so custom development is separate from the OS. This is a best practice.

I don't use python, but Ruby has rbenv and rvm. Perl has Perlbrew. I'm positive that python has something similar, pyenv. https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv seems to be it. There might be other alternatives too.