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So ubuntu gets updated every 6 months or something right? I've just got it, do you reckon the latest verison of firefox, thunderbird and gaim will come with the next updates, or do I have to go and get them manually?
as root. It will automatically check for any updates and you can choose to install them.
It should be the same or very similar for Ubuntu.
Or, open Synaptic (as root) and do it from there. Then you can choose to install any uptades you want.
yea done that, but firefox and gaim still remain not the latest version.
do I have to add their source to a list somewhere?
I wouldn't have thought so, seeing as they came with ubuntu...?
You can read here how to add some repositories with newer versions of programs. Ubuntu doesn't upgrade programs until the new release. The only updates you will be getting are security fixes. If you really want a newer version of a program during the six-months release you have a choice to install the package from the socalled backports repositories (or request the package being put there) or install it yourself manually (from source).
Open Synaptic and make sure you have all of the repositories checked. Or do sudo gedit and open /etc/sources.list and uncomment the repositories that # .
You list should look something like:
Ubuntu sources.list covers pretty much anything, giving you access to over 16000 packages.
Also remember that gaim tends to get updated a little faster then most other programs, so you have to wait for the ubuntu programers to roll the debs for the distro, and this can take some time as compared to the source programers releases
Most of the newer version of things like Firefox are in the last repo in my list above. I think Gaim is still 1.4. OpenSUSE has 1.5, in Debian I still have 1.3.1 unstable/Sid has 1.5.1.
Breazy has 1.5 for gaim, or ya can use the autopackages found on the website (I forget the url but google will show you), or if you are curious, you can learn how to make your own deb for gaim, it's not that hard and has a minimal of dependancies.
You know I"ve allways wonderd why a distro didn't start something like that before, I mean yes, for alot of programs sharing libs is a very good idea, but for the general end user it's a real pain in the but to have to satisfy dependancies, if only synaptic was a little easier for the average end user, (not that it isn't but when you give somebody to many choices they tend to freak out)
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