Search giant Google has finally launched a repository of its software for Linux users. The repository will house the latest Linux versions of its software and make it easier for Linux users to keep up to date.

Tired of finding and downloading packages for games, and having to check for updates youself? Playdeb is a software repository for the games available on GetDeb, who package recent games and applications for Ubuntu. With Playdeb, games are easy to install and will be updated when new versions are available.

I’ve blogged about this in the past but it seemed to be overlooked.  I blame the poor choice of title.  In any event, I figure it would be worth revisiting as I’ve had a few suggestions on it being a good topic.

I was discussing the creation and maintenance of an Ubuntu repository mirror in IRC today and realized that I haven’t blogged about how to do that.  Its funny sometimes how topics pop up, and something I’ve been using for months never made it onto the blog.  In any event, below I’ll outline how to create your own Ubuntu repository mirror–great for consolidating and saving bandwidth for multiple machines!

During a thread about daylight savings confusion here in Sydney, Martin Barry asked the SLUG list why updates to Ubuntu packages go into a separate “updates” repository. John Ferlito suggested that I blog my answer…

I am generally very wary of suggesting the use of 3rd party repositories. I rarely, if ever, use them myself, even if it’ll make installing an application a bit simpler. The bottom line for this is that I want my machine to be as supported as it can be, so I generally only use the official Ubuntu repositories (main restricted universe multiverse). Adding this repository will add unsupported packages to your system, but it is considered far more trusted than other repositories.

addrepo is a simple command line interface for easily adding APT repositories to your sources.list.

Google’s Linux software repositories make it easier to download and stay up-to-date with current releases of Google Linux applications. Please choose one of the guides below to help configure your system to use these repositories.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already ahead of the pack since you run something other than Windows. If you are also running Gutsy Gibbon, now you can leap ahead and get updates anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before everyone else.

Many of you know that I’ve been running and testing Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy” since early in the alpha stage. There have been no show stoppers and its been fun to see the development continue to happen, and be able to contribute to that by submitting bugs.

Ubuntu offers you the choice of various repository mirrors around the world. Initially I just chose a server close to me in Canada. But is it really the fastest?

Downloading software from repositories can be a long and daunting task especially when you are downloading from a repository server which is far from your location.