@mcc @double_a_runi apologies if you already know this: ubuntu cuts from debian's "testing" repositories twice a year (for 04 and 10), and packages aren't really updated beyond that except for browsers and a few other bits.

distros with "fresher" packages exist: fedora is great for this, it has a solid testing process too before packages hit live.

ubuntu (and debian) have a long history of... kinda hacking packages up a bit. debian does it predominantly to split them out, ubuntu adds more to do "ubuntu-centric" things to them sometimes. occasionally this collides with upstream a bit.

like with package age, distros with "more vanilla" packages exist (again, fedora, incidentally).