Needlessly wasted, because each person doing that could publish it as a spec and save everyone else the effort. They are relatively easily converted between fo

Needlessly wasted, because each person doing that could publish it as a spec and save everyone else the effort. They are relatively easily converted between formats (ie: deb/rpm)... once any is made. Personally, I appreciate that this is generally available in distributions. This is the entire purpose behind Linux distributions. Package up and distribute the software. I don't begrudge anyone plugging away at development, but using the source as the distribution model drives me mad.