[software manager] bugged version of an application

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alxMint
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[software manager] bugged version of an application

Post by alxMint »

Hi there. This is my first message here on this community.
I just installed Mint.

Using the (wonderful) software manager, I noticed that sometime the version of an application that you can find on the "store" is not the best available on the web.

Is there a way to solve this issue?

At least, is there a way to report this issue, hoping soon or later it will be solved?

In this particular case, the "bad version" software I'm referring to is Visual Studio. Thank to the comments in the software manager page, I discovered that the version you can download on the official site is much better than the version available on the software manager, since this one is really bugged and unreliable.


Thank you for attention.

Cheers.
alXMint :mrgreen:
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Larry78723
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Re: [software manager] bugged version of an application

Post by Larry78723 »

You have to understand how Long Term Release distros work. Once a release is made (LM 20 for example), that release is frozen in time. Security upgrades and updates are made via the Update Manager. The apps in the repositories are from Ubuntu (Mint's base) and have been checked to ensure that they are compatible with that version of Mint and are free of malware. If the software developer fails to submit their software for validation in a timely manner, it doesn't get included in the current release.

Just so you know, I use Visual Studio Code downloaded directly from their website.
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Re: [software manager] bugged version of an application

Post by alxMint »

I see, this makes sense, thank you Larry.
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Re: [software manager] bugged version of an application

Post by Moonstone Man »

alxMint wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:51 pm I see, this makes sense, thank you Larry.
It often happens that we need the latest version of some software that is quite aged in the default repositories, so we subscribe to other repositories, subscribe to PPAs (Personal Package Archives) provided by developers, use flatpaks, AppImages, or even compile and install from source code. If you have some software that you need the latest version of, the quickest way to find it is to search for the software's name with 'ppa' in the search string, or instead of 'ppa', you can use 'repo', 'repository' or 'github'. Alternatively, if your searches are fruitless, create a new thread and ask here in the forums. Those of us gifted with god-level google-fu will usually search for you.
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Re: [software manager] bugged version of an application

Post by alxMint »

I will treasure these precious advices, thank you Kadaitcha.

Anyway, I was able to download a .deb file from the official site and, after the download, Firefox suggested me to open it automatically with the package manager: therefore, luckily, in the specific case, it was super easy and comfortable to install the program without the software manager. :mrgreen:
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Re: [software manager] bugged version of an application

Post by Larry78723 »

Glad you found what you wanted.
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Re: [software manager] bugged version of an application

Post by Hoser Rob »

alxMint wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:30 am ... Using ... software manager, I noticed that sometime the version of an application that you can find on the "store" is not the best available on the web.
Presumably by 'best' you mean 'newest', and in Linux that is NOT necessarily best. There's not a lot of backwards or forwards compatibility in Linux, so so the newest version of something may be uninstallable or break the OS if youb do manage to do so.

There's always a confilict in Linux between stability and having the newest version of everthinng, and long term support releases like Mint favor stability. Rolling releases, where you always get the newest version, are simply not suitable for beginners because they'll be breaking the system comstantly.
Is there a way to solve this issue?
Use appimages, flappaks or snaps, but thopse take up more disk space.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
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Re: [software manager] bugged version of an application

Post by alxMint »

Hoser Rob wrote: Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:18 am Presumably by 'best' you mean 'newest',
As I said, according to several comments in the software manager about the Visual Studio version here contained, it is a bugged and unreliable version, while the version offered in the official site is more reliable and works better. This is not the first and only case, it is already happened to me in the past to see these kind of comments about the software manager version of a software, but I am not able to indicate precisely what these other cases consist of, I cannot exactly remember them at the moment.
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