Indeed the fact that, in many cases, one has to compile software themselves just to get a reasonably recent version of it is one of Linux's most colossal and in

Indeed the fact that, in many cases, one has to compile software themselves just to get a reasonably recent version of it is one of Linux's most colossal and inexcusable failures. Fortunately people are starting to come around to things like AppImage, FlatPak, and (to a lesser extent) Docker in order to deal with it.