It is true that "sometimes it has a newer libc" and you can check this. If the libc version is important there will be a versioned depends in the control file.

It is true that "sometimes it has a newer libc" and you can check this. If the libc version is important there will be a versioned depends in the control file. If the libc is too new in saucy I can change: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/.../ubuntu saucy main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/.../ubuntu saucy main to: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/.../ubuntu precise main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/.../ubuntu precise main OP was asking about software "exclusively" for ubuntu, so I have no idea why you are mentioning backports. When I need to get something (especially when it is an alternative twitter client as in the instant case) to work I could really care less if people on #debian would get grumpy if I told them about my solution.