Why is it so hard for Ubuntu to have up-to-date packages

Jun 28, 2015 02:00 GMT  ·  By

I don't know about you, but I like my Linux distribution of choice to have the latest software versions installed, always. I like to know that I am using an up-to-date operating system. Is that so hard? Apparently yes, if you're using Ubuntu.

This is something that has been on my “frustrations list” for a very long time now. It is the main reason behind my decision of not using Ubuntu as my main operating system, especially that I use Linux for work every day.

Some old-school Ubuntu users know exactly what I am talking about. No matter how hard Ubuntu tries to offer you an easy-to-use and user-friendly operating system, or the latest Linux innovations and technologies, it fails badly on the up-to-date software part.

If you're searching the Internet for something like "Latest Software Versions in Ubuntu," you will find a lot of topics and questions on different websites from people who, at some point in time after using Ubuntu, discover that they don't have the latest version of their favorite app(s) that was just announced.

I mean, come on, on Windows and OS X you can always install the new version of a piece of software that has just been released/announced officially by its developer. You can also do that in some rolling-release Linux distros like Arch Linux, but not in Ubuntu.

The mandatory example

Let’s take, for example, Mozilla Thunderbird, which is very important software for all GNU/Linux distributions, and it is also the default email, calendar, and RSS aggregator client for Ubuntu.

When a new version of Thunderbird is released (38.0.1 is the latest), you can immediately click a download button on the main website and get an installer for Windows or OS X. A few clicks later, you have the latest Thunderbird on your system.

In Arch Linux, I get the new Thunderbird version on the same day or after a day or two. In this case, Thunderbird 38.0.1 was released on Mozilla's FTP servers on June 10, it was available on Arch's repos on June 11, and it was officially announced by Mozilla on June 12.

It's been approximately three weeks since Mozilla Thunderbird 38.0.1 was released, and it's still not available in Ubuntu, and many users are asking around the Web why. Another example is the Geary 0.10.0 email client from Yorba, which is a version recommended by its developers. The latest version of Geary in Ubuntu is 0.8.2.

PPA does not quite save the situation

Now, some of you will say that you can always rely on PPAs for the latest software versions of a program. Personal Package Archives (PPA) is yet another cool Ubuntu innovation, but not all apps are using this sort of package delivery system.

Considering the examples above, you can install Geary 0.10.0 in Ubuntu via a PPA, but that is not the case for Mozilla Thunderbird 38.0.1, which adds numerous great features when compared with the 31.7.0 release that is available in all supported Ubuntu OSes.

Not to mention the fact that if you have a lot of applications for which Canonical does not provide the latest versions available, you will end up having numerous PPAs installed, which might also slow down system updates.

PPAs can be easily compared with AUR (Arch User Repository), but the main difference between PPA and AUR is that the latter is a single repository comprised of all the packages made by the community.

Will Snappy package management system resolve this issue?

Sometime in the near feature, Ubuntu will have an all-new packaging system, called Snappy Personal, which is another innovation from the developers of the world's most popular free operating system.

Snappy aims to replace the DEB-based packaging system in future versions of Ubuntu, but the big question remains: will I have the latest software versions in Ubuntu with the new Snappy package management system?