I am looking for a way to track updates or changes to open source software, in other words I want automatic notification when new releases are made.

Is there any single place or easy way to do that? Again, What I am looking for is notification when, for example, firefox ver 3.1.2 is released, or when kde releases 4.4.5, k3b makes a major change, etc, etc, etc.

Anyone have any idea how I could accomplish this?

Thanks

The short answer is no.

The changelog and the slackware-security mailing list tell you when security patches are released for slackware-stable.

The -current changelog tells you when packages are updated in -current.

The SlackBuilds.org mailing list tells you when scripts are updated there.

Slacky.eu lists package updates on its front page.

To keep up with changes upstream you use the newsfeeds and mailing lists for the individual projects. There are also websites like Freshmeat and lwn.net that announce updates to quite a large number of projects.

For updates to Slackware, you can use slackpkg to check for updates.
See "man slackpkg" and /etc/slackpkg/slackpkg.conf for the details on how to use slackpkg.
As Dugan said though, you should still regularly check the changelogs on Slackware.com and Slackbuilds.com for important updates.
I check those every day. I am (well, perhaps a bit..) obsessive about this stuff though..!

One way to do it would be to use an RSS feedreader to something like Softpedia's Linux updates, or to each web site individually. Many sites now have an RSS feed. I use RSS Owl which is a nice feedreader.

For the SW that is in the repository for a typical distro--and is installed on your system, all you would have to do is run a script that checks for available updates at regular intervals.

If you were thinking of installing something newer and bypassing your package manager, my suggestion is don't. Package managers like to be in control and can make your life difficult if you don't let them.

If this is specific to Slackware, then ---never mind...

If you install software via sbopkg, it has an update function that searches slackbuilds.org for newer versions. Of course this means that the maintainer of the slackbuild has to be paying attention, but that is generally not a problem.

Typically when I find out a new software application release has been made I go back to slackbuilds.org and get the build, update it, download the new code, and make a new package. Then I remove the oldpackage and install the new. This process works fine with me, no issues.

What I need to know is when to go look for a newer version of the software that has been released. It would be nice if a website tracked all these opensource peices of software and notified, via email, that a new version is available. I don't want to have to go to each website (firefox, k3b, thunderbird, etc,etc) and join their RSS feeds which will have a million announcements -- I just want to know when a release is made.

Everyone understand my dilema?

If the multiple options we've mentioned aren't good enough, then you'll have to create and launch that service yourself. I'm sorry.

I just don't see any viable options that do what I am asking for. I love slackbuilds.org but frequently find what is available on their site is not the most up-to-date. Don't get me wrong, they do a pretty good job but there are LOTS of software that are regularly making releases. (lots of software is not even listed on slackbuilds.org)

Let me use an example, Digikam. How does everyone know they are running the absolutely latest version of it? They are constantly releasing new versions of it -- did you check the website today to make sure it's the "latest" release. Well I don't want to have to "check" the website everyday because i typically don't have time to check it and 500 others.

It seems there would be a service somewhere that would notify -- the best option suggest here yet is an RSS feed.. but I still hate to subscribe to 500 feeds. Some mentioned "you can use a script", naturally yes, I could write my own script to do what I need but I was wondering if one existed already. It would be a useful tool or website for people who want to keep a very up-to-date system.

Just a thought.

If having the latest version of everything is a priority, then I recommend Arch. Their repos are very bleeding-edge.

In your eagerness to lash out at people you missed the first RSS suggestion I made, which was to subscribe just to the ***Latest Linux Downloads*** feed at Softpedia. Not the other Linux feeds at Softpedia in other words, or the Linux software reviews feed, or the Linux news feed.

Just the ***Latest Linux Software*** feed.

It's just one feed and it gives you a short notification of pretty much all the latest Linux releases/updates. I'm sure Sourceforge and Freshmeat offer a similar service.

if you think arch is enough bleeding edge for you, a way could be to subscribe to their svn changelog feed.

Thanks, Gezley. I will try the softpedia approach as you mentioned. I looked for a similar feature on freshmeat but couldn't really find what I was looking for. Hopefully softpedia will work! Thanks.

It's not ideal, I'll be the first to admit, but it's the "best" I've found.