NewsForge: New GNU Source Installer Eases Unix Source Installations

“GNU/Linux distributions and other Unix and Unix-like operating
systems already offer a plethora of tools for installing software.
Many of them rely on different package formats, and a lot of the
GNU/Linux distributions’ effort goes into maintaining an updated
and comprehensive list of ports or packages. Sometimes this great
and respectable effort does not suffice, however, and users must
install from the source packages provided by the developers.

“It could be because they need some optional and less frequently
used feature that must be compiled in. A binary package might be
unavailable yet from the vendor or distributor, and maybe it never
will be. Whatever the reason, sometimes fetching a source package
and building it is the only way to go…”

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