Newer versions of software?
 

Is there a way of updating installed software to its latest version, short of downloading the package, uninstalling the existing version and re-installing?

For example, I'm on Linux Mint 12 LXDE and using Transmission 2.33 bit torrent client. I notice from their website that the latest version is 2.73. When I load Software Manager in Mint, I am just informed that Transmission is already installed, but there's no "update this to the latest version" option. Is this because Mint 12 has been tested with version 2.33, and found to work, so this is the version I'm meant to stick with until Mint is updated?

Or is it just a matter of doing it manually like I said - just uninstalling the existing package and downloading/installing the new one direct from their website?

v 2.33 is all that's in the LM REPO, so that's all you can "get". You are at the mercy of the REPO Maintainer in this instance, however,

That is the only option you have at this time for a version not found in the Mint Repos. Sorry.

Thank you for the information.