Posted 03/10/09 at 03:00:00 PM by Will Kraft

With the prevalence of software available for many distros, why would anyone want to compile software from source? Compiling allows you to custom-fit a program to your particular hardware configuration and CPU architecture, which is useful if a program has no binary that is compatible with your processor. However, this is seldom a problem these days, since most computers now use 32 or 64-bit x86 processors. In the past, Linux enthusiasts often compiled programs from source to wring the greatest possible performance out of their hardware. More recently, this has mostly become a non-issue due to the increases made in computing speed; while compiling may offer a slight performance increase, it is not enough to really make a difference.

Although the introduction of package management on most distros, less diversity in CPU architecture among the user base, and massive increases in hardware speed have largely reduced or eliminated the need to compile software yourself, there are still a few instances where you would have to do so. Although the various official and unofficial software repositories for Ubuntu and other distros include most of the tools that the average user would need for any given purpose, the repositories are not completely comprehensive.Old packages sometimes get dropped and updated versions are often slow to be added. It may also take a release cycle or more for brand-new programs to be included.

While Ubuntu and Debian have “backports” repositories that have fairly new packages in them, many other distros do not have such a resource. For large projects with large community support, the developer may offer nightly builds, but this is not the case for most projects. The only reliable way to get bleeding-edge software (stability issues aside) is to either find a repository that has it or download the source code from the developer and build it yourself.

Read on to get started!

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Posted 12/30/08 at 10:00:00 AM by David Murphy

As 2008 winds to a close, we're taking a look back at some of the year's highlights in the open-source world.  And what a year it's been!  Google phones and the android operating system finally saw the light.  The semi-popular MMO Myst decided to go entirely open source, the genre's first "conversion."  And Microsoft--yes, Microsoft--decided to embrace open-source development with one hand while chastising it with the other.

We're rounding up all of the year's top stories from every source we can get our hands on.  Click the link and let's get started with 2008's top open-source news!

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