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I am using the standard (Unity) Ubuntu 16.04 version and would like to try GNOME Builder.

This answer suggests using the gnome3-team/gnome3-staging PPA for this. After adding the PPA, apt-get upgrade suggests upgrading a lot of packages that are in the system already although I don't have GNOME installed. I am curious what are the chances that the updated GNOME project components will happen to be incompatible with Unity and break the system.

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Ivan
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1 Answers1

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First of all, gnome-builder is available in Standard Ubuntu repository for Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus. The answer was for 15.10 I assume.

$ apt-cache policy gnome-builder
gnome-builder:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 3.18.1-2ubuntu1
  Version table:
     3.18.1-2ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 Packages

Secondly, using PPAs means you're using some custom distribution. You're no longer on Ubuntu's upgrade path. It's OK as long as you're able to tackle any issue rising from using these PPAs.

Specifically, Gnome3 Staging PPA will likely to break your GNOME installation very much. Other Gnome software might not work with the latest versions of gnome libraries and hence you'll be unable to install them. However, you can always use ppa-purge to return back to Ubuntu repository.

My personal experience with gnome3-staging PPA is very bad. I would not recommend not to use that PPA to anyone who is willing to stay on Stable path.

Quoting from PPA page directly,

=== WARNING ===
The packages here have been deemed not ready for general use, they have known
bugs and/or regressions, sometimes of a critical nature.
Mostly things should run smoothly but be prepared to use ppa-purge, when you encounter issues!

If they break your system, you get to keep both halves.

Anwar
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  • Thanks. I don't mind minor bugs (in fact I have been the rolling-release model and bleeding-edge versions enthusiast for many years already and have never ever encountered any problems at all) but I really don't want Unity itself and the essential apps (Nautilus, Evince and Terminal) to stop working once some libs they depend on get upgraded. – Ivan Sep 12 '16 at 20:56
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    Essential apps will not stop working as they will be supported by the Ppa I believe. And you always have ppa-purge – Anwar Sep 12 '16 at 20:58
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    The problem with the Builder included in the standard Ubuntu repository is it of an obsolete version - it even lacks the new project creation feature. – Ivan Sep 12 '16 at 20:58
  • hmm. You didn't say anything about this reason in your question. However take note that, you should enable gnome3 main ppa too as instructed by staging ppa – Anwar Sep 12 '16 at 21:01
  • `ppa-purge` will hardly do anything (or anything good) in my case as I 1. use a huge lot of PPAs and purging all of them would be a total revolution, many apps I use regularly are missing from the standard repos completely, others are too old there 2. I don't use `add-apt-repository` and prefer to add all of tem to `sources.list` manually. And yes, I know about the main GNOME3 ppa but thank you for mentioning this anyway. – Ivan Sep 12 '16 at 21:04