softwares latest version repository

Hi,

Would it help/be feasible/manageable to have a repository
of the latest version of softwares (categorised by type
of software)?

The reasoning is that individual may not have time to monitor
all softwares for updates, (although sometimes one can
register like in sourceforge?)

In LQ this would suppose members' input, it may have the
advantage to join forces, and this would share the work.
One would only need to register as many threads as needed.
If it gathers momentum it could be somehow automated
(that it is people releasing new version would notify automatically
the thread)

It could be possible to have the thread subscribing itself to
the software mailing list (if the messages are not too frequent or too long.

I suppose in the way it would be similar to the HCL.
HCL are available elsewhere but LQ is bringing something
different.

Users might be able to input some feedback on a given version?

What do you think?

Regards

Would be nice, but how could LQ.org keep track of updated softwares?. And I guess every distribution out there (at least the ones worthy mentioning) offers a way to keep your distro up-to-date.

Besides, a few applications would make things quite annoying to track. Gaim for example, has a huge team of developers with a lot of spare time, so they release a "new" version every two weeks :\

>how could LQ.org keep track of update softwares?

I suppose I see it as a bring and share and advertise exercice:

LQ users update whichever entry whenever they want
("pet softwares" will be covered, as well as very widely used softwares.
A natural selection would occur in terms of how often the update
is reported, or guidelines / or set frequency could help
to keep track of whether a version number update is needed.
Also it is a bit of popularity entry contest, but that does
not leave not widely used software marginelised at all.
On the contrary)

Developers updates LQ when they want to let people know
of a major change

LQ admin / gurus: I suppose they already have too much work Regards
But otherwise they could concentrate on the softwares
security related (for example)

To answer your question, the only way I know of an update
is usually by going on the website of the software,
or sometimes reviews, magazines, or reading threads
on a given subject.
I assume most people operate in the same manner...

david_ross actually had an ideal very similar to this at LinuxWorld UK. I liked the idea, and so did the other mods present. We never did get all the logistics sorted unfortunately.

--jeremy

can we have that repository same on the lines of LQ ISO??

Originally posted by masand can we have that repository same on the lines of LQ ISO??

It was a fairly similar format that I had in mind.

It should be possible to collect notifications from a number of sources:
* Official release mailling lists
* Project developers
* Periodic automatic scanning of websites

A moderator would then approve them and they would appear along with links to release notes and changelogs. There is also the possiblity of providing daily and weekly digests to people by e-mail.

There would probably need to be an extra layer than the ISO site - ie:
Distributer-> Product Name-> Version List

I'm not sure it would be possible or worthwhile keeping lists of each package update a distribution releases since they usually have something in place to do this already but notifications of software such as OpenSSH, apache, php and mysql etc would be useful to me at least.

yes it will surely be worth because instead of asking users to google for some software ,the link in this repsotory will be handy
and this will be one stop to lookout for updates
i have to visit 4-5 sites each time i look for some multimedia packages
also i need to lookout for other sites for network/security updtaes etc etc

regards

Based on this thread, we are looking into implementing David's original idea. Stay tuned!

--jeremy

BTW, if you have any specific feature requests or ideas, feel free to put them in this thread. Thanks.

Originally posted by jeremy Based on this thread, we are looking into implementing David's original idea. Stay tuned! --jeremy BTW, if you have any specific feature requests or ideas, feel free to put them in this thread. Thanks.

that will be great

also i think we can add a section of recommended software updates on differnt flavours of linux
for exmaple i got kubuntu installed now if i get to to know that kaffeine is buggy on that and i need to upgrade that that wil be good

also like i got fedora installed and i get to know that xmms won't play ,mp3s and i need to upgrade that ,that wil surely help many people

i think we can have somethong on these lines

regards

Hello Jeremy, David,
It is great to see your enthousiasm for this.

I can offer some help, although limited to putting a few entries as a normal
user would and giving you some feedback on the process.

david_ross actually had an ideal very similar to this at LinuxWorld UK

I did not know. I am a newbee. So it is interesting that the idea
is coming from the two "extreme of users", isn't it?

There is also the possiblity of providing daily and weekly digests to people by e-mail.

Good. Also would it be possible to subscribe to version release notices
for individual software? It is possible in LQiso.
The main difference here for users is that they may be tracking 20 or 30 softwares
(so maybe say after a search, being able to select all the software we want
to know about their newer version would be quite practical. Then, we user
could ammend that list anytime)

This no of tracked software might need to be capped to avoid high load?


Something else:
Will you create categories like security, office work, graphics...
Would you display a count of the number of people tracking each software
(that would give some idea of popularity based on a "new criterion",
that is people following update closely)

I wonder, could you set some entries or categories as moderated one and some as unmoderated?
There so many software out there (it seems anyway) that I fear you would
get too much work. I suppose then user could report an entry as needing moderation if needed. Do I make sense?

Regards

Originally posted by Emmanuel_uk I did not know. I am a newbee. So it is interesting that the idea is coming from the two "extreme of users", isn't it?

I'm not sure many people knew, we were in a pub at the time.

Originally posted by Emmanuel_uk Good. Also would it be possible to subscribe to version release notices for individual software? It is possible in LQiso. The main difference here for users is that they may be tracking 20 or 30 softwares (so maybe say after a search, being able to select all the software we want to know about their newer version would be quite practical. Then, we user could ammend that list anytime) This no of tracked software might need to be capped to avoid high load?

This is the plan so far. You'll just need to login and check the boxes that you want then if any updates have been made you can choose a daily or weekly digest of updates. This will also be made available to you as an RSS feed so you can add it to your favourite RSS reader (will also work with FireFox live bookmarks).

Originally posted by Emmanuel_uk Something else: Will you create categories like security, office work, graphics... Would you display a count of the number of people tracking each software (that would give some idea of popularity based on a "new criterion", that is people following update closely)

So far the planned layout is simliar to LQ ISO so the front page would have the 10 most popular etc. I can't see a problem with adding it to the individual product's pages as well. There should also be the chance to search by subject as you describe.

Originally posted by Emmanuel_uk I wonder, could you set some entries or categories as moderated one and some as unmoderated? There so many software out there (it seems anyway) that I fear you would get too much work. I suppose then user could report an entry as needing moderation if needed. Do I make sense?

I'm not sure how far we would go unmoderated, there would certainly be an option for users to report a new version being available.