still unclear about updates versus rawhide

[Robert P. J. Day]

  i still haven't seen a definitive explanation about the distinction
between "rawhide" and beta "updates."  are these technically one and the
same?

  from fedora.redhat.com, "As developers build packages to fix bugs or
implement new features, the packages are placed in Red Hat Rawhide..."

  historically, i always thought that "updates" were highly-recommended
patches, to fix bugs or apply security updates.  in short, those were the
sorts of things that were pretty clearly *guaranteed* to be in the next
release.

  rawhide, OTOH, was for new and improved packages that were still
noticeably leading edge, perhaps uncomfortably so in some cases, and while
they almost always supplied more functionality than the current packages,
there was no guarantee that they would end up in the next release.

  so, officially, how does one stay up to date with the soon-to-be-
released beta?  just keep applying rawhide on a regular basis?  or what?

rday