> I'll save the standard 'if you want bleeding-edge run testing' speech, > since I assume you've heard that part already. :) already am. but stuff like Galeon, GQview, Pan, Mozilla, Xchat... are many versions behind the current stuff on their web pages. (this is to be expected). > 1) If I can find source, I compile from that rather than using an RPM > usually. It keeps my system generally cleaner. From source I can go one > of two directions: > A) If I'm lazy, or just want to test something, and/or it doesn't need > to be in the same location as packaged things, I'll just throw it in > /usr/local/stow/<packagename> and stow it. sounds like a reasonable option for stuff you don't update much. or is it good for testing new versions of stuff? make a separate directory under /usr/local/stow for each new version? > B) If the package does need the same prefix as pre-packaged things > (e.g. extra GNOME libraries), and/or I'm feeling meticulous/anal, I > make a Debian package out of it. This isn't as hard as it seems at > first. The best place to start reading is probably the New > Maintainer's Guide, available at > http://www.debian.org/doc/maint-guide/ch-first.html. I'll have to learn it one of these days. I'm pretty much a non-coder, but I have contributed some RPM .spec files to projects. > 2) If you want to install from RPM, I would recommend using alien. It > does a fairly clean job of things, and you can always check the .deb it > generates before you install it. I believe there's also a way to tweak > the control scripts before you actually build the package. how well does it deal with apt-get upgrades? I would hope that by using this method; the version I install wouldn't be overwritten by something that apt grabbed (unless there indeed was a newer version on the debian mirrors). thanks a lot for the advice! Carl Soderstrom -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises (952) 943-8700