[ale] AARG! Manual software updates, Sun Java, LibreOffice, help

[Ron Frazier]

On 11/7/2011 2:17 PM, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> On 11/07/2011 10:58 AM, Ron Frazier wrote:
>    
>> So, right now, if I want to have my Linux machine running the most
>> current LibreOffice 3.4.3 (I think) and the most current Oracle Java
>> 6.29, like some of my Windows machines already are, I have to go through
>> procedures for those two applications to update them which are
>> substantially more difficult than those on Windows.
>>      
> The thing you're not getting is that, if you want security updates, you
> need only run an update every so often.  And on most Linux
> distributions, that will update EVERYTHING INSTALLED ON YOUR SYSTEM.  On
> Windows, you have to actually bother to check for all your applications.
>
> Unless you have some serious issues that you MUST. WORK. AROUND. NOW.,
> you really don't need to be stepping outside of your distribution.  The
> only reason that I ever step outside of mine is when I am actually
> actively developing software that depends on a version of something that
> I cannot get from my package manager.  That's it.
>
> 	--- Mike
>    

Yes but you said you run Gentoo, which is a rolling release system.  So 
you may be getting more frequent updates than I.  As far as I know, the 
most common vectors for malware are office documents, pdf files, flash 
content, and Java / Javascript exploits.  All the security experts say 
patch your system frequently and keep all your apps up to date.  So, I 
have a particular interest in keeping Firefox, LibreOffice, Flash 
player, Adobe Reader (Windows only in my case), and Java up to date.  
Before I brought up this topic, and before finding the Mozilla PPA, my 
system was only updating LibreOffice to 3.3.2 (I think) and Firefox to 
3.26 (I think) and Java to 6.26.  In some cases, that means the programs 
are several months out of date.  Personally, I don't like to be running 
with things that old, particularly these things, even though I don't 
always find the time to keep every thing updated every month.  That's 
why I'm trying to find a solution to keep things more up to date.  I'm 
not quite ready to go through the hassle of upgrading to Ubuntu 11.10, 
and even if I did, I wouldn't be on LTS any more.

Sincerely,

Ron

-- 

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Ron Frazier

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