What are PPA's & how to use them

A PPA or, Personal Package Archive, "allows you to upload Ubuntu source packages to be built and published as an apt repository by Launchpad (launchpad.net)."By using a PPA users are able to distribute software and updates to other Ubuntu users. After a user has created a package archive Launchpad will build binaries and host them in the uploader's repository. When adding a new personal package archive (PPA) to your system be sure to evaluate the "safeness" of said archive prior to adding it.

The "safeness" of a PPA depends mainly on three things:

1. Who made the PPA - It is not the same an official PPA from WINE or LibreOffice likeppa:libreoffice/ppa than a PPA from me. You do not know me as a PPA maintainer, so the trust issue and safety is VERY low for me (Since I could have made a corrupted package, incompatible package or anything else bad), but for LibreOffice and the PPA they offer in their website, THAT gives a certain safety net to it. So depending on who made the PPA, how long he or she has been making and maintaining the PPA will influence a little bit on how safe the PPA is for you. PPA's as mentioned above in the comments are not certified by Canonical.


2. How many users have used the PPA - For example, I have a PPA from http://winehq.org in my personal PPA. Would you trust ME with 10 users that confirm using my PPA having 6 of them saying it sucks than to the one Scott Ritchie offers as ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa in the official winehq website. It has thousands of users (including me) that use his PPA and trust his work. This is work that has several years behind it.
3. How updated the PPA is - Let us say you are using Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10, and you want to use THAT special PPA. You find out that the last update to that PPA was 20 years ago.. O.o. The chances you have on using THAT PPA are null. Why?. Because the package dependencies that PPA needs are very old and maybe the updated ones change so much code that they wont work with the PPA and possibly break your system if you install any of the packages of that PPA to your system. How updated a PPA influences the decision to use it if he/she wants to use THAT PPA. If not they would rather go look for another one more up to date. You do not want Banshee 0.1 or Wine 0.0.0.1 or OpenOffice 0.1 Beta Alpha Omega Thundercat Edition with the latest Ubuntu. What you want is a PPA that is updated to your current Ubuntu. Remember that a PPA mentions for what Ubuntu version is made for or multiple Ubuntu versions was made for.

PPAs like LibreOffice, OpenOffice, Banshee, Wine, Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, PlayDeb, GetDeb, VLC are good and safe PPAs. Some PPAs might update some of your packages when you add them to your repository because they will overwrite with their own version a certain package to make the PPA software work on your system correctly. This might be some code packages, python versions, etc.. Other like the LibreOffice PPA will remove all existence of the OpenOffice from your system to install the LibreOffice packages there. Basically read what other users have commented about a specific package and also read if the package is compatible with your Ubuntu version.

Original Source for text: StackExchange  Contributing Authors from Source: Luis Alvarado

Ubuntu 11.04 and newer:

• First open the dash by clicking on the home button.

• Search for "software center" and launch the Ubuntu Software Center.

• Now go to the "edit" menu, and select "software sources."

• Enter administrative password when prompted. 

• Switch to the "other software" tab. 

• Click "add" a new box will appear.

• You now need to enter the PPA into the APT line: box.

• Click "Add Source" and close software sources. After the cache is refreshed you will now be able to install software from this ppa via the Ubuntu Software Center. 

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Original Source for Text & Images: StackExchange  Contributing Authors from Source: Alaukik

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