I have installed Ubuntu Server 10.10 and now I want to install some software like PostgreSQL, Nginx and PHP. But what is the preferred way to get the latest stable version of the software?E.g I tried with sudo apt-get install postgresql but that installed version 8.4 of PostgreSQL but 9.0.1 is the latest version.I have had this issue before with NginX. The solution was then to download the sourcefiles and compile the latest version which took some time. Later a friend told me that wasn't a preferred way to install software.Any recommendations?
What is the preferred way to install new versions of software?
ubuntu;install;apt;version;software installation
Either you are patient and stick with what you have, or you find an official backport, or you find some unofficial backports, or you build your own package.  The details depend on the particular package.For example, in the case of PostgreSQL, you can either wait a few more weeks until the package officially enters some Ubuntu version, at which point also official backports will appear, or in the meantime you can get unofficial packages (albeit from the same packager) at https://launchpad.net/~pitti/+archive/postgresql.Building your own packages from scratch or installing from source is probably not recommendable for the type of rather complex software that you mention, unless you are mainly interested in learning the internals rather than using them in production.