> The value of debian is not that they package (or repackage) everything into deb files but that they resolve versioning and dependancy conflicts, slip security fixes into old versions of libraries (when newer version break API/ABI), and make it possible to integrate completely disparate software into a system. They also have a great track record at it.

The analog of the aspects of what Debian does that you're talking about here in the HStack world are companies like Cloudera, who, surprise, make their stuff available as debs and PPAs.

Building your own Hadoop from source and complaining that the resulting product is unvetted is sort of like doing a git pull of all the Linux dependencies and building that.