Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
<blink> Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is in turn based on Ubuntu. Ubuntu, the last I looked, did not have OS version specific repositories. Use apt-get to access the repository, and you only get shown stuff that will run under the version you have. IIRC, Ubuntu has a separate repository for older versions for folks with special needs. I also have various PPAs configured to get newer versions of things that have not yet made it into the official repository.
(Ubuntu has gotten flak for not having the most recent versions of things in the official repo. No surprise here. Like Red Hat, they offer supported commercial installations, and will want to make sure they can support what is in the repository, so bleeding edge stuff will need to go through an internal quality control effort before becoming part of the official repo.)
And the relationship between OS version and program version isn't the sort of lock step you see on Windows. Each new Windows release adds to the Windows API. This means limited backward compatibility. Programs require a particular API version and won't install/run on an older version of Windows that doesn't have it.
When I installed Win2K Pro on the machine I mentioned about, I had some stuff that required at least XP and would not run on it. There are likely programs now that require at least Win7 and won't run on XP.
New Linux versions may include kernel updates, but I can recall almost nothing I use that would not install and run on an older Ubuntu version. Drivers will be an exception, as anything that deals directly with the hardware may have kernel version dependencies
I will accept your word that you found it worthwhile to pay for a version specific copy of the repository you use. You are the first Linux user I know of who has found it necessary to do that. Most folks simply upgrade Linux versions.
That sort of thing bites on any OS.
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Dennis
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Dennis, on PCs I am a tool user, not a tool builder. (I do <that> professionally on the mainframe).
With Linux Mint, there is a lot of "mothballing" for beginners (like me). You can go to the menu, select software manager and select a package for download, and it will install like a windows installer app. No terminal commands required. However, the download software looks for particular repositories kept by the Mint organization. (All mothballed away from the user's eye.) Those Mint org repositories go away when the support term ends for that particular release.
Now you can "get under the hood" and redirect the repository name (if you have a copy) and have the "mothballing" software to load from the new name. Or you can "open the hood" and get things with the terminal command.
Am I getting the most out of Linux? Absolutely not! But one of the "rules" of Linux has always been - you can run any release you like, no matter how old. So I <don't> upgrade a working, stable, system to a new release (I do upgrade patches to the release on the "dirty" (internet) box, but not the sterile box). 'Til death of the hardware do we part. . .
Blossom, like myself, just wants a working, easy to use, replacement for WIN 10. Linux Mint does the job, I'd just thought I would point out some of the quirks (for minimal users).