title: Why do a lot of projects only offer source and no jars for download?
body: <p>I've seen a lot of projects, even from big companies like <a href="https://github.com/kevinweil/elephant-bird/" rel="nofollow">Elephant Bird (Twitter)</a> and <a href="https://github.com/mozilla-metrics/akela" rel="nofollow">Akela (Mozilla)</a> that offer source and ask you to compile it yourself instead of also offering jars. Is there some benefit to compiling in your own environment instead of just downloading a jar someone else has compiled?</p>