In fact, I even use it on Fedora as well as Debian and Ubuntu.

The problem, as I noted, is that new packages are tested and built only with very recent versions of their dependencies. So, in order to try out a cool new program or to get an updated version of a program I use which has bug fixes or new features, I must also get new versions of all the dependencies.

And worse than that, these new versions simply aren't made available in binary forms for releases that are just a year old in many cases. Debian, for example, as stable, testing and unstable. But in reality, unless you want no ability to install new software, you have to run unstable. Now unstable is not nearly so unstable as the name suggests -- but this is still stupid. The truth is these new software packages you want to run don't really depend on all these new libraries and tools, that's just what the guy who built the DEB or RPM file had on his system at the time.

Running a stable system with older, more tested base packages is not an invalid goal. But it shouldn't prohibit you from running new software that doesn't actually and truly need something more modern.

Again, compare it to the Windows user running 7 year old Windows 2000 and having done one update to SP2. They can download and install almost every piece of Windows software out there. Try to run a 3 year old linux and you can't even get close to that.