Administering Drupal

[Geoff Shang]

Hello,

I find myself in the position of overseeing a Drupal installation on 
Ubuntu Server.  We're running the 8.04LTS version of Ubuntu with the 
intention of staying with it until the next LTS release (next year?).

The problem I have is that Drupal 6 is not packaged for 8.04.  I got 
around this by installing Drupal 6.10 from Ubuntu 9.04, but even this has 
pending security updates.  So I'm considering updating to the version from 
the yet-to-be-released Ubuntu 9.10.

But this raises a problem.  It's possible to update Drupal from within 
Drupal.  Given this, it begs the question - should I use the package 
system to provide a Drupal installation or should I just install the main 
upstream package asis and use its own updating capabilities to keep it 
updated?

I can see complications ahead if I don't make a firm decision one way or 
the other, so I'd like the advice of anyone who has had to deal with this 
sort of thing.

I don't know much about Drupal and I don't particularly plan to.  I've 
been asked to install it so that content people can do their thing with 
it, and that people in charge of specific sites on the machine can admin 
their bit of it.  Am I naive in thinking I can keep my distance from this?

Geoff.