[SOLVED]How to update programs correctly?

Hi all,

This is my first post to a forum....ever! And my first foray into Linux (I use to script a lot in AIX ~15 years ago) so please excuse my dumb questions.

I currently have Ultimate 5.2. I'm a little hesitant to trade up to 6 since 5.2 is working so well. 5.2 Ultimate shipped with an older version of GIMP and I know that there's a newer one. When I go through the software center, it doesn't really give me the option of updating the program. My question is this: for this specific example, what's the easiest, proper way to update GIMP? I can go through the GIMP website but I'm not sure if things are installed in the right directories, if the PATH needs to be updated, stuff like that.

Can anyone help out?

Thanks.

kengator

PS. Being a recent convert from M$, I see a lot of pushback from Linux purists who, I guess, believe that Linux distros that look and smell like windows are corrupting Linux. I say that's a lot of bunk. Everyone wins when there's good, healthy business competition and if creating distros that lure more users over to Linux creates more competition then it ends up being the best for everyone (i.e. more vendors will write linux hardware drivers if the demand is there). Sorry to rant. Keep up the good fight!

Hi and welcome.
I think you just need to be connected to the internet, open terminal and write:

Code:

sudo apt-get install gimp

I suppose that this will install latest version of gimp and replace the older one.

Hi,

did you look here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2247

Regards Wolfman

Hi wolfman,

I was confused about the fact that Zorin 5.2 synaptic showed GIMP 2.61 as the latest version of GIMP while Zorin 6 released with GIMP 2.8. I thought I was missing something. I now have Zorin 6 so the issue is moot but it leaves me asking one question: Will synaptic always show the latest, stable version of software I have or is there some repository adds that I need to do.

Thanks for your help.

kengator

The repositories do not always have the latest versions. But for sure they have stable ones and open source ones.
If you care specifically for a certain program you can go to the programmer's website and check which version is the latest.

For example, I have downloaded Vbox from the programmers website and the latest stable version was 4.1.18. The repositories had the 4.1.12 version available.
If you don't just download and install a program but add the programmer's repositories to your updates, then it is been kept updated.

All,

Thanks for all the help. There seems to be a lot of ways of doing things in this OS-->example: updating via command line vs synaptic vs update manager vs website. It all seems to depend on preference.

Again, the help is much appreciated. You can mark this as SOLVED or delete the post.

kengator

Great!