Package-Update from ITK 3.3 to ITK 3.20

The following answer refers to some repositories by name. If you don't know what -security, -updates, and -backports refer to, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu.

I recommend that you file a bug against itk3 in Ubuntu requesting that it be updated to version 3.20 for Oneiric (which is the upcoming release, Ubuntu 11.10). In your bug report, you should make sure to indicate why it is that you believe that upgrading to version 3.20 would be beneficial (since it would have to be packaged for Ubuntu manually, as itk3 3.20 has not been packaged for Debian yet and thus cannot be trivially imported). Before reporting any bugs in Ubuntu, please be sure to read https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs carefully.

If there are any security bugs or serious stability/usability bugs in Ubuntu's downstream version of itk3 which have been fixed in upstream version 3.20, then even though itk3 will not be made available in the -security or -updates repositories for existing releases, fixes for those serious bugs should be backported to the downstream versions in the existing releases (and made available in -security and/or -updates), creating new downstream versions that contain those fixes but do not offer the latest features (and thus minimize the changes and potential new bugs foisted upon users of the stable release). See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates for details. So if there are such bugs and you are able to specifically identify and discuss them, you should file another bug against itk3 in Ubuntu requesting that the fixes present in itk3 3.20 be backported to the downstream versions of itk3 in currently supported stable Ubuntu releases.

Regardless of the above, if you want fully-fledged itk3 3.20 to be available for easy installation in one or more currently-existing stable supported Ubuntu releases (Natty, Maverick, and/or Lucid), then you should file a bug against the appropriate backports project to request its inclusion in the -backports repository for the desired release(s). Please make sure to read https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBackports carefully first, as it explains how -backports work and how to file the bug properly. Please note that, to search to see if there has already been such a request filed in a particular release's backports project, simply remove "/+filebug" from the end of the URL that you would (subsequently) use to file the request yourself.

When you file any bugs in connection with this matter, please link them to this question by using the "Link existing bug" link on the top of this question page.

If you have any further questions about this matter, please feel free to post a reply in this question thread.