Okay, first off, to better explain my question, I should state that I am not talking about JUST Ubuntu Linux. I am wondering why for the vast majority of programs out there, we either need to install them though a package manager, compile them, or download a corresponding "packaged" file (deb,rpm, etc).

Think of it like this.... go here, and download firefox 17

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html

Untar the file, open the firefox folder, open a terminal session there and type ./firefox . It works, and you didn't have to compile anything or install anything though a package manager to get it to work.

Firefox is not distributed as the source, a make file, and a bunch of other needed files to create it (I'm guessing like the corresponding object files and the like).

I realize that you would probably run into dependency problems, but I cannot seriously imagine choosing a compiled program over one that simply works because you can't figure out how to open the README file that comes with the program.

As far as the kernel goes, I do realize that you can build your own with some modifications, and no distros probably run the EXACT same kernel (they all do stuff to make it better), but we are all probably using the same base from kernel.org.

So...what's the deal? Why do people that make these programs just not give out pre-made executables that work with any version of the kernel arch they want it to?