I think that the Linux software repository system is one of the biggest and best features about Linux compared to Windows, but one drawback is that not all of the software that I use is necessarily in the software repositories, forcing manual updates.

An example, to manually update the browser Pale Moon, that requires that I type:

wget linux.palemoon.org/files/27.1.2/palemoon-27.1.2.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

tar -xjvf palemoon-27.1.2.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

sudo rm -rf /opt/palemoon*

sudo mv palemoon /opt/palemoon

sudo ln -sf /opt/palemoon/palemoon /usr/bin/palemoon

At the time, 27.1.2 was the latest version. Each time Pale Moon is released, that would require manually updating to get the latest version. That is somewhat annoying and time consuming. It also means that you cannot take advantage of one of the largest advantages of Linux, the repository system. 

I generally recommend that for browsers that you get the latest version, particularly because they have the latest in security fixes.

Pale Moon Repositories for Ubuntu

Since Linux Mint is based off of Ubuntu, you can use many of the repositories, or even the kernel updates from Ubuntu directly. This is important because Ubuntu has a lot of software that is very valuable.

First  Repository

I recently learned that such a repository does indeed exist for Ubuntu. They are maintained by Steve Pusser. Here is the link:

https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=home%3Astevenpusser&package=palemoon

Be sure to click on the Debian icon if you are using Linux Mint Debian as well.

Second Repository

There is also a repack available, maintained by László Kovács To add the repo:

sudo add-apt-repository ‘deb http://kovacsoltvideo.hu/moonchildproductions/ ./’

wget -q http://kovacsoltvideo.hu/moonchildproductions/public.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add –

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install palemoon fossamail

Hopefully this will make keeping Pale Moon up to date much easier. Thanks to both Steve and László for maintaining these repositories.

Other Distributions

There are already repositories for Pale Moon for the following distributions:

• Manjaro

• PCLinuxOS

• Puppy Linux

• MEPIS/MX-15

• Arch User Repository (AUR)

• Gentoo Overlays

• Slackbuilds

This makes it possible to use Pale Moon easily if you have those distributions as well.

GCC also has a repository in Ubuntu

Linux Mint comes with a version of GCC already installed, but by the time you receive it, it is usually not the latest version.

First, at any time, if you want to check the version:

g++ --version

You can update to a more recent version:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test

sudo apt-get update


sudo apt install gcc-6

Afterwards, open up the Updates and then refresh, then you should see a more recent version of GCC.  I bolded gcc-6 because that’s currently the latest version. When you read this, that may no longer be the case. Google up what the latest version is.

Now type:

gcc-6 --version

This will get you the GCC version. Be sure to change the -6 into whatever version of GCC you are running.

Closing thoughts

The Linux repository system is very helpful and saves a lot of time, but it depends on  the software you need being available on a repository.

You will probably find yourself adding several Linux repositories to get all the software that you need.