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stephenmyall
Asked: 2012-04-26 01:37:17 +0800 CST

Where can I get a better understanding of Repositories?

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As the title suggests I would like to confirm my assumptions and get a better understanding of the Ubuntu software repositories in terms of what is supported and getting updates. I will use GIMP as an example (but this question is NOT about GIMP) it’s a general question about repositories.

I know I can install GIMP from the USC and currently its version 6x

From another repository “add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp” I can install Gimp v8x

Are these assumptions correct?

  • Both versions are supported
  • Eventually v8 will be available in USC in the Ubuntu Repositories to install
  • I may have future issues during updates using a PPA that is not in the USC.
official-repositories

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can read about repositories here.

    ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp is a PPA (personal package archive) - kind of a personal repository.

    Its description says:

    CAUTION!

This PPA could break your installed OS. There are dependency issues 
especially for Oneiric (11.10). Only use it if you know what you do! I'm 
working with others on a stable and reliable solution.

    Gimp is currently at version 2.8, but older Ubuntu releases have older versions, which are maintained either by Ubuntu developers or the community.

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  2. If there are multiple versions, the system will use the latest version. If the newer version is added and doesn't work, the user will need to purge the PPA and packages used from it. (More info about purging)

    This is a great reason to have a virtualbox machine of the distro you are using, you can test things like this before committing the changes to your actual machine.

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