Eclipse version on Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr)

Question

Newbie-question: Does anyone know why in the ubuntu software repository eclipse is on version 3.8.1 while the latest eclipse version for linux from eclipse.org is eclipe 4.3.2? Which version should I choose for recreational java development with git? (I have read somewhere some time ago, that eclipse is having issues which it's 4.xx releases on linux and is lacking developer ressources to fix them, and someone even recommended NOT making eclipse updates through the built-in update feature of eclipse...)

Has anyone more information about this?

UPDATE(2014-05-11 12:02): over at stackoverflow.com there is already helpful question with some answers: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19792909/why-does-ubuntu-14-04-stick-with-old-eclipse-3-8-when-4-3-is-out

Solution

The version of software in the repository is the latest tested stable version which may not necessarily be the actually latest stable version from the developer. Most of the software in the repository is a few versions older than the latest released version of the actual various developers.

You might consider going to the developer's site of your favorite applications and getting the very latest reversions from them. Keep in mind that the version on the developer's site might not be fully supported yet with your Ubuntu current Ubuntu version.

While the latter might be true, this isn't something I have experienced by getting the latest from the developer.

I alway install the latest version of Eclipse (being one of my favorite applications) from the developers site:

https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

You probably already know by your reference to the latest version.

The version for linux includes the binary which will work directly from the archive extract. You can extract the tar to /opt/eclipse and run the exec from there.

Comments

[Taylor Ramirez]

The Ubuntu repositories require packages to go through a stable checking process so it takes time to get new packages in there. I would suggest always using the latest software in all development.

[Philip Couling]

Its worth reading this page: stackoverflow.com/questions/19792909/… This seems to support L. D. James's answer.