Assume that this particular partition exists only to run inkscape
0.48. Does this change your advice?
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No. I might do a "apt-get install -t experimental inkscape" if the solution it recommended was sane. Though, the backport shouldn't take much more than ten minutes and it's the better resolution. Running Sid is another idea, though some will tell you not to do this. The upside is you get newer Inkscape packages -- can you deal with using a slightly older version until it comes to Sid?
Ideally, one would backport pacakges to stable. In practice however this usually isn't feasable and sometimes it isn't possible at all.