Why update Linux repositories before installing software

Open source operating systems like Linux distributions are constantly gaining new and experienced fans alike. In fact, many regular Windows users migrate to one of these distros in search of more secure and reliable software.

There are also those who use Linux as an alternative operating system to Windows to carry out certain specific tasks. It must be taken into account that when choosing one of them, we have at our disposal a huge number of alternatives. At that moment it is time to choose the one that interests us the most depending on several things. First we must know the type of use that we are going to make of that distribution, the knowledge we have, the power of our equipment , or the functions it presents us.

Why update Linux repositories before installing software

But with everything and with it, many of these systems share a number of characteristics and functionalities that make them more than suitable in all types of environments. The current developers have already taken care of that, since they try to adapt their projects to the vast majority of users, Linux connoisseurs, or not. But here, not only does the operating system as such come into play, but at the same time we must take into account all the software that we can use in Linux.

In most cases we find a good number of very interesting open source proposals to install here. However, we must take some precautions before installation to avoid problems in the future. That is why below we will talk about the usual Linux repositories and some notes on them.

programas linux

Avoid problems when installing programs in Linux

The first thing we should know in this regard is that these Linux distributions that we are talking about install the software that we choose from central repositories . For all this and automatically, the corresponding package managers are used to facilitate and speed up the process. In the same way, it is achieved that the user has access to a greater amount of software and also its installation is easier.

It is worth mentioning that this software to whom we refer to open source, usually uses shared code libraries . Therefore, distros routinely make use of these libraries and package them in the same way as programs. But on certain occasions we can find some inconvenience in this same sense. And it is that the exact moments of update of the programs and their libraries are not always the same.

Therefore, it may be the case that developers make changes to their projects or libraries that alter their operation. As you can imagine, what we tell you can lead to certain failures when executing the programs that we have downloaded. Precisely to avoid all this, the best thing to do before installing software from these Linux repositories is to update them beforehand. In this way, we can also update the corresponding libraries before downloading and launching the new software that we need on our computer.