r/SolusProject • u/tareater123 • 4d ago
Confused about package update frequency
Hey! Was thinking of maybe giving solus a go but im confused about how often packages get updated because some packages seem to be updated very often while others (blender and godot from what i can tell) are lagging quite far behind (5.0.1 vs 5.2.3 and 4.6.3 vs 4.7.x respectively)
Is it an actual concern that some packages might be left behind for a long time before they get updates like this or is this only the case for a small portion of packages?
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u/zmaint 3d ago
u/Chester-Berkeley nailed it. Also, this isn't Arch, they're not pushing out an update simply because one is available and then the end user has to deal with the consequences of something being buggy. We are rolling, but the packages are curated, IE tested as best they can to make sure things go smoothly. I can't count the number of nividia driver packages that were skipped or held, simply because they were buggy as crap... as a result, this is the best nvidia linux experience I've ever had. In short if a package is "old" there's usually a pretty good reason for it. You can always ask on the forum, the maintainers are usually more than happy to answer.
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u/Merthod 3d ago
It likely is that the maintainer tapped out or isn't active. If you want a specific answer, go to the package Github page in the Solus repo, and ask for a package update for X. Then you'll see whether they line the update up, or the maintainer tapped out and the package is now unmaintained (then you could use AI to create your own and test it if you want, or look for the flatpak alternative).
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u/ForgetTheRuralJuror 3d ago
Packages that are heavily used will often be on the latest versions. If you want a specific package to be updated quickly, Solus is one of the easiest distros to package for imo. I recommend packaging one yourself in that case, or requesting an update here if you don't have the time
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u/zardvark 18h ago
Solus is well curated, so buggy, or unstable versions of applications may be weeded out, as not fit for release. Many other distros which are on a rolling release schedule simply pump out the new point releases, effectively signing the users up to become a crash test dummy.
If Solus doesn't make a point release available, there is usually a good reason.
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u/Chester-Berkeley 4d ago
Solus receives updates every Friday; some non-critical apps like Firefox or Thunderbird are updated as quickly as possible. But if any security flaws are discovered in the Linux world, they release updates ahead of schedule (as happened last week).