[TriLUG] Deb vs. RPM (was Icecast.conf and debian)

[James Oden]

> 
> Frankly, I'm not sure I really grasp the value of source packages. The
> tarball solution is awfully well standardized by now, to the point where I
> generally don't even have to read the instructions, just untar, configure,
> make, make install. less INSTALL is usually just for when I manage to
> break something :)
>
The value of a source package is that you can compile the application _very_
easily, and gain some of the optimizations you might gain from a local 
compile, while maintaining the audit trail and adminstrative functionality
gained by using a package management system.  Tarball's leave no audit trail,
nor do they generally provide a method to quickly determine if every file
included in the distribution that should not change has not changed.

Cheers...james