[ale] Staying current with mainstream distribution

[BruceG]

Hey all,

      I am running SuSE 9.0 on one desktop, and Debian testing/unstable (from 
Knoppix) on another. I noticed with the Debian desktop I can do an apt-get 
update, apt-get dist-upgrade and end up with the latest and greatest Gimp, 
Open Office, Mosaic, KDE, Wine ... - it all just upgrades to the latest 
versions (well, maybe after some apt-get -f install, and a rare dpkg 
--force-overwrite on occasion).

      Are there any tools in the SuSE world that will let me upgrade to the 
latest packages, or do I just wait for the most recent release and do an 
upgrade of all packages? Does Ximian red-carpet offer that kind of service, 
and is it at cost?

      I like how stable and reliable SuSE has been, but don't feel confident 
in upgrading specific packages by RPM - I kind of prefer Debian's way of 
dealing with that. Any thoughts or recommendations?