Debian has several ways to hold a package (for example see this Debian bug http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=137771) - via Synaptic, Aptitude and dselect. They are inconsistent.
Ubuntu Software Center is very good and handy application.
Is it possible to integrate package version holding functionality into it?
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: software-center 5.2.7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-35.55-generic 3.2.34
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-35-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.1
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: a3c9de473bf7a483a92609c6b20d2aee
CheckboxSystem: b633b4f40868d491c2ae5b50030ce6f3
Date: Fri Jan 18 18:23:40 2013
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
TERM=xterm
PATH=(custom, no user)
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: software-center
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-09-28 (112 days ago)
This would be a good small feature. Probably there should be a "Hold Version…" or similar item in the "File" menu, opening a dialog to choose from available versions.
See also bug 653381, about the ability to install old versions if they are in the archive. Maybe those two commands could even use the same menu item.