On Nov 11, 2007 2:00 PM, John Clarke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > Could someone help clarify for me what my options are to upgrade to an > app version that my distro's package manager does not support? > > To illustrate my question and goal: last April I installed Debian 4.0, > whose Synaptic tool supports OpenOffice 2.0 > > But with OpenOffice at 2.3, how can get my paws on that current release? > > The way I see it my options are, in order of effort: > > 1) wait for next Debian stable release > - unspecified release date > - I assume/hope next release will install over 4.0, but expect distro > will still lag a given app's current release > > 2) in Debian 4.0 uninstall OpenOffice 2.0 and install 2.3 > - somehow use for eg. Synaptic to advance distro to support a more > current app version > > 3) Switch to a more progressive distro like Ubuntu, with routine > releases in April and October. > - best in the long run, to keep up with current app release > > Have I missed anything or can anyone shed light on whether 2) is doable > and routine or instead impractical and inadvisable? Are > package managers such as Synaptic (I believe Ubuntu's Adept uses the > same underlying APT tool), or some other tool(?) intended to do 2) or am > I out of luck? > > Thanks for any recommendations, pointers!
I often have the same problem with old distros (I'm running Fedora Core 4 on a system because it is a pain to upgrade because of some proprietary development tools.) For big or important packages, I handle it myself. You can download OO.o 2.3 from openoffice.org and install it on any distro. It might end up in the wrong directory if you aren't careful, but that is easily remedied. I do the same thing with Firefox and Pidgin on FC4, and haven't had any problems yet. YMMV, though. -Mark C. _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
