GNU Nano old AF?

[LIGISTX]

I am a super noob with linux type stuff, but I have a really dumb question I don't know how to google and don't understand. Why is the nano text editor so old in "new" Ubuntu and even Raspbian distro's.

 

For example, I have a few Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS vm's, and they have GNU Nano 2.9.3, and I have a Raspberry pi running Buster lite, and that is running GNU Nano 3.2 and my Macbook on newest Catalina is 2.0.6. Uh, what. Why. Does it super matter, no, not really. But why can't I apt-get update these in the debian (Ubuntu and Raspbian) environments? This may not even be the correct question, but I just don't understand why this is or where to look.

 

Thanks!

[Bacon soup]

you will have to ask the package maintainer. Its likely they have more important things to do. Ubuntu has a lot of old versions of software in its repos. To get the latest you will have to go to the software's website/git hub and you will likely need to compile from source.

[Sauron]

MacOS has historically had extremely old versions of GNU utilities because of license restrictions. Ubuntu 18.04 is 18 months old so it makes sense it would have somewhat older packages than the newest release of Raspbian, especially for low priority packages like nano.

[WereCatf]

4 hours ago, Bacon soup said:

you will have to ask the package maintainer. Its likely they have more important things to do.

I would assume this as well. I mean, it's not like nano is a particularly feature-packed thing or anything, so you're unlikely to be missing anything important, even if the package in the repos is a tad old. It doesn't even depend on a lot of things, so there's not a lot that could break it even if it's not receiving the latest and greatest updates all the time.

6 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

For example, I have a few Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS vm's, and they have GNU Nano 2.9.3, and I have a Raspberry pi running Buster lite, and that is running GNU Nano 3.2 and my Macbook on newest Catalina is 2.0.6

I'm using Ubuntu 19.10 and it seems nano is at version 4.3 there.

 

[wasab]

Get arch linux, you will have everything bleeding edge. 

[LIGISTX]

21 hours ago, wasab said:

Get arch linux, you will have everything bleeding edge. 

That.... is not what I’m going to do. Lol. The ubiquity of Ubuntu is the best part about it. Maybe not the most updated part, but the best part. Lol

[elsandosgrande]

On 11/6/2019 at 4:21 AM, LIGISTX said:

That.... is not what I’m going to do. Lol. The ubiquity of Ubuntu is the best part about it. Maybe not the most updated part, but the best part. Lol

Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one. While I have gotten used to cobbling things together when an ebuild is not available for a certain package (I am running Gentoo by the way), boy would it feel good to have everything in the repository, or at least in an official overlay.

 

To be fair, Arch Linux is not far behind with its Arch User Repository (AUR), so...

[Danova Kontrola]

well, your Ubuntu was released in April 2018. Debian 10 was released just 2 months ago.

Simply as it is, that is the reason.

 

You may think that when you have Ubuntu LTS version, that you get some new tools and features later. That is actually what most of the ppl think.

However, its not true. LTS stands for Long Term Support, which basically means security updates for kernel and tools. Nothing else.

 

If the Canonical adds some new features to some Ubuntu specific tools, it usually go only to the current release, they do not add it to the previous ones.

LTS version of Ubuntu is also more about stability, which means properly tested packages. It takes lot of time to test it so once they are released to repository, they are usually kind of old already.

 

If you want new version of Nano text editor, you have to upgrade.

 

My personal note is to start using VI editor, its much faster and productive.

[elsandosgrande]

On that note, there are backports, but I guess that they kind of defeat the purpose of an LTS system in the first place.

 

Also, while Vim is pretty good, it is not for the impatient when first learning how to use it. Personally, I suggest the Vim Tips Wiki for new learners, but expect to be reaching for DuckDuckGo every once in a while.