For those that are using launchpad, the term PPA should be quite familiar. This short entry is for them. I have been using PPA since 4-5 years ago. Before, I used to have my own repos in: packages.antoniac.name.
Then, something changed and Ubuntu guys, through launchpad.net, started allowing personal package archive access (or PPA) and builds. Now, the trouble with them is the conflicting of packages (you might think). However, behind the PPA submission of packages is a clever name convention and ultimately you have quite a good control of where the package comes from. Now, to add more honey to the sweet thing, you could use several commands to automate inclusion and removal of the ppa's:
sudo aptitude install ppa-purge # To be able to remove it later (if you don't have it)
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:pan1nx/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade # or install new packages
sudo ppa-purge ppa:pan1nx/ppa # To remove the packages and install the original
Hope this help some of you handle the ppa's in a friendlier way...
