[Fsf-friends] Re: Free Software CD's (Clean Distributions) and learning to reason

Mahesh T. Pai wrote:

Users can get source packages in both RPM and Debian's dpkg system.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and rpm and dpkg do have their use. Many users cannot compile or never have to bother with sources, and it suits such needs well. But today, with better hardware and software, compilation can be done reliably and quickly. Compiling directly from the sources may be the most preferred method, and if this fails or is not possible, others could be opted.

SRPMs give the sources, but then, can we not more directly distribute and use *tar or *bz2 released by major free software project teams?