Two thoughts come to mind. The first is security. Some times it feels like there is no choice if you want to complete a project in a particular environment. You may need one module and along come 15 others. I've always tried to control the install or take the manual route, so I know as much as possible of what just got installed and where. It isn't always easy. These tools are designed for sight-unseen automation. The second item, is management. I ususally keep the LM installed version... so my system stays stable. It's nice to go to one place, command line or gui (synaptic package manager) and get the version(s). But that may not always be correct because of the above. I try hard not to use special modules or applications that use them because they could be gone or unsupported tomorrow. I want to know something is going to be around for at least a decade
When you do development and pull in modules from these other sites, do you have any special procedures, best practices? Do you have a separate machine (virtural or physical) for development?
I found this chart that shows how many modules there are each day and the growth/day. Amazing.