I'm not clear on how packages are included into the repos that apt-get queries.
For example, redshift is at v1.11, but the one that is installed via apt-get install redshift is 1.10.
Why is it using a verion that is over a year old, and how can I help to include the latest version?
The packages and software that are available in the software center / repositories are (as far as I know) the version that the distro maintainers have determined is stable and tested at the time of the point release. This does not always mean that it is the latest available version of the software. For example, I am pretty sure Eclipse IDE is often a little behind in the Ubuntu repos which is why I regularly get the latest from their official servers. With most of these programs' code (like Redshift) being fully available on sites like github, you could always build it from source and have the newest one available. You could also search Google and see if someone is maintaining an up-to-date ppa. In your case, you may be on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS which is about a year old at this point. According to this link, Ubuntu 16.10 is using redshift 1.11 - https://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/core/yakkety/universe/base/redshift
