this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
16 points (90.0% liked)

Linux

47933 readers
1237 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

sometimes, if I want to install a program from the terminal, I get 2 options: apt and snap.

It can happen that the displayed versions are not the same, one candidate shows a higher version number than the other.

Do both libraries use the same numbering system and is it safe to assume that the higher the version number is, the newer the program is and one should only consider this variable to install new stuff?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

They both use upstream version number (as in the number software developer gave to the release). They might additionally have some kind of revision number related to packaging or some patch number, but as a rule of thumb, yes, the bigger number is the most recent. If you should use that as a only variable on deciding which to install is however another discussion. Sometimes dpkg/apt version is preferred over snap regardless of version differences, for example to save a bit of disk space, but that depends on a ton of different things.