Official (Synaptic) software updates

[Newmint17]

Could someone please confirm how this works?

I have LM17.1 and one program (Claws-Mail) has not been updated for at least two years. In that time the software itself has seen three major updates.

Now that LM18, based on a newer version of Ubuntu, is available, does this mean that Claws-Mail will never be updated on LM17?

If so, could someone please describe how I could update it myself - dependencies and all - from a tar.gz tarball?

Thank you.

[Cosmo.]

You write in the title: official. Official in the sense of the package management is, what the official repositories offer. If they do not offer a newer version there is no other official way. But you can add the PPA for Claws; here you can see, which version get offered.

[Newmint17]

Thank you for your reply.

I was trying to point out how the Mint releases become hopelessly outdated and to ask what other alternatives exist for me.

The link you provided took me to the Canonical website offering version 3.11.1 dated 2014. Current version from the Claws-Mail site is 3.14.0 dated August 2016. So, are you saying I have no alternative but to stick with this old version? May I repeat my plea for some guidance as to how to install from a tarball?

Thank you.

[Pjotr]

The official repo's of Linux Mint 18 contain version 3.13.2 of Claws Mail. So that's newer than the one in that (probably deceased) PPA...

When a newer version of Claws Mail is important to you (but why?) you might therefore consider to upgrade. If so, do a clean installation of Mint 18.

Note that Mint is a frozen / fixed release, which is a great advantage:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... r-updates-
(item 3, left column)

[ivan-the-idiot]

If you consider Ubuntu repositories to be "official" something may be available in Trusty backports