Marc, the reason that distros do not release software that is considered on the edge is that it must go through QA testing with the distro vendor.
In your case, you want to have the latest ( which is fine ) but in order to do so you will have to install from source or use a 3rd party repos are not always well maintained and security patches are not always applied.
If you want to have the latest, just install from source and write an update script to maintain it. In the Linux world, staying on the edge is constant process and apt is not always available.
Building the installations from scratch is the best way to really learn about the platform anyway. - Dustin