thelinuxlink.net

;does anyone here use freshmeat to keep up on their favorite software? i've started to use it any i really, really dig it.

;if you don't know what freshmeat is or how it works, here's the short explanation. basically, freshmeat keeps on top of thousands of software projects (mostly free software) and lets you "subscribe" to them by registering a profile and selecting your favorite software. once you've subscribed, the software project appears in your "my" section. this let you keep an eye on all your favorite software and refer to the list whenever you need to check dependencies, updates, URLs, etc. pretty darn cool. i use the e-mail notifications for each project--so that i get an e-mail when a new version is posted--and i really dig that too. they even give you a userpage, so you can see what's up in, say, treehead's freshmeat world.

;if you haven't yet, give it a try. look me up and stick me in your friends list (my username is treehead of course). i encourage anyone who has a freshmeat account to post their userid so we can add you to our friends list... it'd be a cool way to extend the linux link community.

;treehead

No thanks.

I use a distro. My distro uses package repositories. If it isn't in my package repository, it doesn't exist.

There are a very, very few situations when I'll go to an RPM that's not supplied by an approved repository. I don't think I have anything installed from source anymore. There's just nothing out there I need badly enough to spend the time and risk the instability. (except for Angband, of course )

Yeah I mostly use Portage if I want something. Every once in a while I'll go source fishing at sourceforge.net

Debian Packages has everything I could want, with maybe the exception of Skype. Marillat covers all the proprietary/multimedia stuff.

;you all make good points... although, i'm not sure that the purpose of freshmeat is to be a package repository. it's really more of an index of software, so you can search for software you don't know exists, or you can keep track of changes to the software you do.

;certainly package managers do their fair share keeping the software installed up to date, but i like knowing when to run those updates and why. i suppose i like the community aspect of the site as well.

;oh well, i tried!

;treehead

I think Freshmeat is a good thing. I just think it's not as useful as it was. I think modern distros are getting good enough that a lot of us don't have to care what is happening in the outside world. There are a couple projects I check directly on their Sourceforge sites to see what's new.

Other than that, my distro takes care of me.

It's not bad on Freshmeat, it's just that Linux has gotten so much better.

I use freshmeat a lot. Not only does it help keep up on some of the latest resleases in the FOSS world, if I am looking for a specific type of software I will hit Freshmeat first.

If my distro has it in package form, I'm golden, otherwise I can get to the home page of the software and grab the source tarball.

I use it to keep up with new developments in software. Sometimes I will find an interesting project listed and read about it and maybe install it from my distro's repository.

It does not always have to be for bleeding edge software.