New Debian user here

[Ivo <death@metalfield.com>]

Hi,

I've just stepped from Slackware 7.1 to Debian 3.0r0. I hope I'll become a
convert and it looks bright. :) I'd like some insights in the pros and cons of
using a package system, which frankly, I have never really been much into.

I like to download, compile and occasionally test some of the latest software.
As I'm new to Debian, I don't know how fast new (stable/test/unstable) packages
will be available and on top of that, I might want to play around with some
compile-time options, rather than install a binary package (I suppose using a
source package would allow this).

Will I pollute my system to death if I start compiling some of my stuff by
myself? I'd hate to miss doing the occasional ./configure && make :) For
example: the first thing I did was download the tar.gz for kernel 2.4.19 and
installed that, rather than the 2.4.18-5 package I saw available in dselect.

I guess this is true for packages that have dependencies or on which others
are dependent. But is there some kind of good practice for compiling your own
stuff or is there basically no way to mix compiling tar.gz's and installing
.deb's and still keep a completely healthy system?

Ivo