Repos or compile from source?

[DealerMan]

How often do any of you install software from source instead of using available repos? Is there any meaningful benefit (stability, etc)? Just curious.

[67GTA]

I rarely install from source unless there is something I can't get from the repos, or have to get a newer version. The only downside is that once you install from source (assuming you didn't download malicious software) is that it will not get updates. You will have to manually update everything not installed from the repos.

[deadguy]

I have installed from source in the past when I used redhat, but
nowadays I can usually find everything I need either in the repos
or find a deb package to install. it's soo much easier!!

[civint]

I generally download from repos, or from downloaded .debs for times sake, as well as the fact that I rareley have all the required software for compiling from source. Also, since we use ubuntu based repos, and I'm not really a major user of apps like emacs, so I don't need the customization offered by source compiling (if I wanted that I would have installed slackware or Gentoo.....)

[DealerMan]

Excellent responses, thanks everyone. This is helping me to actually understand how & why Linux works the way it does.