Is it normal for older Linux to install different versions of programs?

On my laptop I have Kubuntu 21

On my desktop I have Ubuntu 18.04.5 because of compatibility issues

The software on my Kubuntu 21 is 6.1.1 and it functions correctly.

The same software on my Ubuntu 18 is 4.1.1 and it is not functioning correctly. It is still 4.1.1 even after I do sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade && sudo apt dist-upgrade

The software on my Kubuntu 21 is 6.1.1 and it functions correctly. The same software on my Ubuntu 18 is 4.1.1 and it is not functioning correctly. It is still 4.1.1

What precise bit of software are you referring to as "4.1.1" and what do you mean by "not functioning correctly"?

If you are using an older version of a Linux distro, you can expect that it will include out-of-the-box older versions of programs.

If the distro has not reached end of life (EOL, that is, no longer supported), you should be able to update the applications to newer versions.

Also, as a general statement, Linux distros can differ as to what software versions they install. Some distros are bleeding edge and lean towards the very latest versions of everything; some are more conservative and may lag a bit behind the bleeding edge versions. (Personally, I have not yet encountered a situation in which not having the latest bleeding edge version of a bit of software has kept me from accomplishing what I need to accomplish, but that's just me.)

Originally Posted by frankbell What precise bit of software are you referring to as "4.1.1" and what do you mean by "not functioning correctly"? If you are using an older version of a Linux distro, you can expect that it will include out-of-the-box older versions of programs. If the distro has not reached end of life (EOL, that is, no longer supported), you should be able to update the applications to newer versions. Also, as a general statement, Linux distros can differ as to what software versions they install. Some distros are bleeding edge and lean towards the very latest versions of everything; some are more conservative and may lag a bit behind the bleeding edge versions. (Personally, I have not yet encountered a situation in which not having the latest bleeding edge version of a bit of software has kept me from accomplishing what I need to accomplish, but that's just me.)

The software requires an input in terms of a text file. With the same text file, the 4.1.1 gives me Line-Length exception, but the 6.1.1 accepts the input text file, and starts running correctly. However, going to 6.1.1 is not an option because of compatibility.

You still don't mention what software it is. Does the software in question have a bug tracker? Is it a known problem for the 4.1.1 version that was fixed in later releases? Perhaps, it's mentioned in the changelog for 6.1.1?

In general, Debian has a very strict policy of keeping software versions the same during the lifetime of a distribution release. That means, backporting bug fixes to older releases rather than upgrading software releases to newer ones. While Ubuntu policy is somewhat more relaxed, it applies only to packages directly maintained by Ubuntu team (i.e. to packages from main and restriced repository sections). Most packages in Ubuntu, however, are in universe and multiverse sections, they are mostly taken verbatim from Debian. For some packages, there may be newer versions in the backports repository, but this is rather an exception than a rule.

BTW, there are 51 software packages in Ubuntu 18.04 that have the version 4.1.1. They are built from these 22 source packages:

$ aptitude -F%e search '~V^4\.1\.1-'|sort -u|column
flufl.enum		node-dot-prop	    prelude-manager
fonts-ricty-diminished	node-lru-cache	    profitbricks-sdk-python
fyba			node-module-deps    ruby-ace-rails-ap
influxdb-python		node-object-assign  ruby-timers
libotr			node-uniqid	    setools
libvoikko		pdns		    soundgrain
linguider		pdns-recursor
modules			prelude-correlator

And none of them has version 6.1.1 in Ubuntu 21.04 (the nearest hit being soundgrain 6.0.1). So, I assume the package in question is not provided by Ubuntu.

It's the hashcat

Distro's have been trying to make the package management work correctly. As a new distro version comes out the maintainers may notice some issue where some programs may need to be kept to some version usually because of dependencies. Not much you can do usually but make sure your package management is fully up to date.

If you wish you can try to go outside of the built in method and get some pre-build or source build of the version you wish to use.

So hashcat is within the repo for Ubuntu 20.04, and should be kept up to date on all the versions.

I just installed it as version 6.1.1

If the older version is not working the way you expect then the best fix would be up upgrade the OS to a newer version so the latest software version is available and would fix the problem for you.

Not all newer versions of all software gets updated in older OS versions because of many things that change over time, including the libraries that different software packages rely on to operate.

Here I uploaded hashcat 6.1.1 from Debian sid rebuilt for Ubuntu 18.04. Does it solve your problem?

There is also a PPA providing backports of assorted Ubuntu 20.04 packages to 18.04, incl. hashcat 5.1.0.

Is it normal for older Linux to install different versions of programs?

Yes, this is normal for release-based distros.