I just installed and am using virtualmin for the first time! After a lot of looking around and following different guiides, I have managed to install Virtualmin (GPL) and configure the DNS to point to my main domain.
I wanted to setup php next, but under WebMin>System>VirtualMin Package updates, PHP v5.1.6 shows up as the latest version, whereas I want to install PHP 5.3.x
Do I have to manually update PHP for this? won’t manual update mess up the config?
Also MySQL v5.0 is listed as the latest version whereas I was planning on using MySQL 5.5! A lot of other packages seems outdated too. Do I need to manually update all of those?
A lot of other packages seems outdated too. Do I need to manually update all of those?
Well, a few of thoughts on all that –
First, if you’re thinking of moving to a package version that’s not part of your distro… that’s something you have to be careful with. Once you leave the packages provided by your distro, you’re using software that’s less tested. Also, if you manually compile and install it, you’d be responsible for making for it gets updated when security releases come out. If you’re manually installing those, that can be quite a hassle to do every time there’s a security update.
One thing is that RedHat and CentOS backport bugfixes and security updates from newer software versions into the versions they ship with their distribution. So those versions aren’t necessarily as aging as they look… there may be some newer features they lack, but they aren’t full of bugs and security problems.
Lastly – if it’s really important to you to have newer software, you might consider a distribution that ships more frequently.
CentOS 5 is nearly 4 years old. Debian ships a bit more frequently than that (though on no particular schedule). Ubuntu LTS ships regularly, at every 2 years. And Ubuntu LTS releases are supported for quite awhile… 5 years I believe it is.