Som confusion about the python library installation

[Michael Torrie]

On 08/22/2014 09:46 AM, Jiafan Zhou wrote:
> I guess it must be the 1.3.3 version being used in the system, but
> why apt-get still reports 1.1.2-3 and this worries me a little.
> 
> Another separate question in relation, do I really need to install
> the python-nose in ubuntu. Can I not just go directly to pip and
> install the nose library?

This is what happens when you mix installing from operating system
packages with installing from other methods (pip, tar.gz, etc).  The
package system is not notified when you install from other sources, so
it still thinks the package is original.  Now with pip you've
overwritten (most likely) the version of nose.  This should be okay,
though if another update to nose comes through Ubuntu, it will overwrite
your pip version.

Just be careful what you manually install over top of a built-in
package.  For example you should never overwrite the packaged version of
Python itself, for example.  If you need to install a new version of
Python, it must be installed along side the system version, in a
different directory.  Sometimes you can find newer versions of software
that you can install with Ubuntu's package tools.  For example, some
people provide PPAs you can use to integrate newer software easily.

Ubuntu 12.04 is rather old now, and while it's still supported, it does
not have the newer versions of some software that you might require, as
you noticed with python-nose.  You could try Ubuntu 14.04.