actually, from what I hear, this was the standard for Unix enterprise software distribution between 20 and 40 years ago. this was in large part due to the wide

actually, from what I hear, this was the standard for Unix enterprise software distribution between 20 and 40 years ago. this was in large part due to the wide variation between Unixes meaning that one would otherwise have to ship several dozen or even more separate binary packages. today, proprietary software largely targets Windows only, which strongly favors binary-only distribution even for open-source software.