Security quotes of the week

How about for number 3 you do something like:

./configure --prefix=$PWD/linux && make all install > makeout.linux 2>&1

That's a habit I've gotten into. Sure, something in the configure script or makefile could wipe out my home directory or start a spam bot, but it's not going to do so with the help of a hard to remove rootkit.

The danger of running unknown things as root is that it could compromise your entire system, making it that much harder to fix. At some point, it's about trying to minimize the damage, not completely prevent it.

You're right that adding a PPA or other repository means you are placing your trust in those entities, and that should be done with care, because they could completely own your system.

Interestingly, some of the LibreOffice builds I've downloaded for Linux use rpm with custom DB using the --dbpath option. This allows the packages to be installed as a non-root user. This is nice for environments where you don't have root access.