[Users] Updating Claws Mail

[GM]

Hello everyone, my first post.

I read the recent thread about Claws Mail and Windows with much interest 
and I agree with your stance.

However, I think you should bear in mind that there are potential Linux 
users who have come from Windows. For many of these (myself included) an 
installation via a ppa is much to be preferred. I came to Claws Mail in 
September via Synaptic and I am still running version 3.9.3. This is 
because in Synaptic it is still the current version. Surprising, in view 
of the important changes for security reasons!

So, could you please keep Synaptic up to date?

Further points. If I attempt to upgrade by using the 3.11.1,tar.bzz, 
should I first remove the older version?
And the installation notes say that I need gtk-devel and glib-devel "or 
equivalent". I could not find the two named packages on Synaptic and as 
for "equivalent" I have no idea. Help!

I assume I should proceed as follows, once the packages have been located:

Download (the first or the second on the list? - I am running Linux Mint 
17 MATE)
Extract
./configure
make
su
enter password
make install

then
% claws-mail

Do I need to run sudo apt-get build-dep claws-mail (and if so, when?)
Will the above steps provide a Desktop short-cut?

Thank you