Suppose I want to install LibreOffice in some obscure Linux distro which doesn’t use APT or RPM. Or I want to install it on, say, Debian, but I don’t officially have the appropriate dependencies. Or I want to put it somewhere in /opt.
To do all this I need a tarball with the binaries. But - http://www.libreoffice.org/ doesn’t offer that. Why?
Edit: Fix bad url
Those are source packages, rather than binary packages in the indicated format i.e., .tar.xz, .txz (Arch Linux) or .tgz, .txz, .tbz, .tlz (Slackware).
LibreOffice, like many other package producers, targets the primary distributions / package managers (e.g., DEB and RPM) with the expectation that this caters to the majority of GNU/Linux users. By way of example, the .tar.xz, .txz (Arch Linux) and .tgz, .txz, .tbz, .tlz (Slackware) package formats are less widely used and these distributions are also generally deployed by those more willing to build their own tarball from the source.
LibreOffice, like many other package producers, targets the primary distributions / package managers (e.g., DEB and RPM) with the expectation that this caters to the majority of GNU/Linux users. By way of example, the .tar.xz, .txz (Arch Linux) and .tgz, .txz, .tbz, .tlz (Slackware) package formats are less widely used and these distributions are also generally deployed by those more willing to build their own tarball from the source.