"There are many packages that you cannot stay current unless you build from source."
So the fact that you *cannot* "stay current" with the latest source on a proprietary vendor's internal source repositories is a *feature*, but the fact that it requires some work and technical expertise to build the latest source on an open vendors public source repository is a *flaw*? You have some wierd ideas!
I have occasionally built from source, after fixing some bugs that were annoying me - and was very thankful that I had the option! If you aren't technical, you pay someone who is to do that for you if it is worth the money to you (personally or businesswise).
In the Bad Old Days, I had to patch binaries to fix bugs. Ugh! Even with premium support contracts, vendors never seem to get around to your problem - unless you are giant corporation.
'"North of 50" is not even statistically relevant, nor impressive.'
This is a question of the definition of a "distro", not statistics. A "distro" is a packaged and integrated product, so that no manual compilation is required. By definition. Even distros that compile during install (e.g. gentoo) do so automatically, so that the end user doesn't do anything extra (it just takes longer). So without any sample data at all, I can state authoritatively, that if you are using a "distro" and are manually compiling stuff from source on a regular basis (or at all) other than while wearing your developer hat, you either need to find a better distro, or are Unclear on the Concept.
Authored Comments
"There are many packages that you cannot stay current unless you build from source."
So the fact that you *cannot* "stay current" with the latest source on a proprietary vendor's internal source repositories is a *feature*, but the fact that it requires some work and technical expertise to build the latest source on an open vendors public source repository is a *flaw*? You have some wierd ideas!
I have occasionally built from source, after fixing some bugs that were annoying me - and was very thankful that I had the option! If you aren't technical, you pay someone who is to do that for you if it is worth the money to you (personally or businesswise).
In the Bad Old Days, I had to patch binaries to fix bugs. Ugh! Even with premium support contracts, vendors never seem to get around to your problem - unless you are giant corporation.
'"North of 50" is not even statistically relevant, nor impressive.'
This is a question of the definition of a "distro", not statistics. A "distro" is a packaged and integrated product, so that no manual compilation is required. By definition. Even distros that compile during install (e.g. gentoo) do so automatically, so that the end user doesn't do anything extra (it just takes longer). So without any sample data at all, I can state authoritatively, that if you are using a "distro" and are manually compiling stuff from source on a regular basis (or at all) other than while wearing your developer hat, you either need to find a better distro, or are Unclear on the Concept.