Handy way to make sure that the programs you install are optimized for your box.

In Debian we get the source, install the build deps, build the program and then install it. It's a snap. Make sure you have devscripts installed. Also, make sure to have the source repositories listed in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Like this:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main non-free contrib
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free

'Course, we do all this from our terminal-fu. Go ahead and fire it up. Very good, now...Make a container directory. For example, I just built a deb for Homebank. I made a directory in my Downloads/office directory called homebank and I cd'd to it. From there I grabbed the source: $ apt-get source homebank/squeeze. Now, since we must build from within the extracted source directory, cd into it. Do an ls first to see what you've got now. Go ahead into the source directory.

Become root, or use sudo if you are so privileged and you can install the build dependencies. Like this: # apt-get build-dep homebank. You'll install a whole slew of development packages needed to build your program. You can remove them later if you like. When this is done you can build the program.

You'll build the program like this: $ debuild -us -uc. It doesn't take too long, maybe 2 or 3 minutes. I had enough time to go grab a drink and when I returned it was all built. All you have to do after your package is built is to install it. You'll have built a deb file so you use dpkg to install it.

cd up a directory, become root or use sudo, and install your newly built package. # dpkg -i package.deb

And there ya go. On my laptop, in my Openbox3 setup, I immediately update Openbox:
$ openbox --reconfigure

After I do that there is a menu item for the newly installed package. Cool. Handy stuff, right? I like interacting this way with my box. And, as an added bonus, the packages you build will be really snappy. More so than the generic binaries you regularly install with - pick your package manager.