Hi, check out "alien" this will install tar balls or RPM type packages and register them with the packaging system so you can uninstall or upgrade easily in the future.
you can just install by hand using `make install` or whatever, but then things can get confusing in the future. If you take the later route, make sure to install under /usr/local (usually the default when building from source), that way deb packages won't stomp on your files later. -Jon
