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It seems the package repository for Ubuntu (apt-get) is somehow not actively updating for the new versions of packages. I didn't realize this until I tried FreeBSD's package manager. Ubuntu gives me nginx1.4.6, while FreeBSD gives me 1.8.x. I'm wondering whether this is really true or I missed something.

Qian Chen
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That's how stable distribution releases work. They "lock" the version of the software in place, so that bugs aren't inadvertently introduced when you do a mass-upgrade to fix security vulnerabilities.

If you want to track "the latest and greatest" of everything, you'll need to modify your list of package sources to include those package repositories where the latest things are available. That can be risky, though, due to the increase in bugs that you'll inevitably stumble across. Typically, on production systems, you run a stable release and just run "backports" of the one or two packages that you really, really need to be newer (because you rely on features not available in the older release).

womble
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  • Thanks @womble. Yes, that sounds reasonable. But I suspect it might not be a matter they want to keep it stable, but they don't have a chance to catch everything up to date. For example, nginx, golang, mysql. Those versions in the apt-get repository are way too old that I don't really believe it's because they want to keep it stable. – Qian Chen Aug 01 '15 at 08:20
  • Yes, it's because they want to keep a release stable. Once a release is made, the packages in it are not updated except for security issues and *showstopper* bugs. That's how stable releases work. – womble Aug 01 '15 at 08:26
  • So do you think nginx 1.4.6 released in March of 2014 is still considered the latest stable now, and anything after March 2014 is considered not stable? – Qian Chen Aug 01 '15 at 08:28
  • For a given stable release of a distribution, yes. A newer distribution release may have a newer nginx version available, however. – womble Aug 01 '15 at 08:30
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    With FreeBSD, I always get what I want, I mean relatively up to date versions of software. Does it mean Ubuntu guys are more conservative than the FreeBSD guys? – Qian Chen Aug 01 '15 at 08:40
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    Yes, that's exactly what it is. Ubuntu is providing a distribution for use in environments where consistency is preferred over having the latest features; FreeBSD is providing up-to-date software, which has the risk of introducing regressions. – womble Aug 01 '15 at 08:42