Linux distributions maintain their own packages in their own repositories. You will never have the latest version when using default repositories. When the distro maintainers decide that a package version is stable enough and fit for distribution, it will be updated in the repository.
You don't need to bother trying to achieve the latest hot-off-the-press version of software on Linux. If that's what you wanted, you would probably have to compile from source at that point, and then continue doing that every single day for any new releases. Usually you can find newer major versions maintained in third-party repositories, such as for PHP7, which is very easy to install.
But if you just want Apache 2.4, use whatever the distro gives you. If you just want PHP 5.6, use whatever the distro gives you.