Know better... in order to do what? They also provide an APT repository, which you can choose to use instead of the curl command. The curl command exists solely for convenience, because it autodetects your OS, distro version, and automatically registers the right APT repository for you if you're on Debian.
As I've mentioned here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5508680), people often freak out at curl commands, yet at the same time I've yet to see a viable proposal for an alternative.
Well, the downloaded bash script does all that, and a user is always free to leave the last piping-into-bash command off. They can review it first, and then run as sudo (or whoever) if it passes muster.
It's not that much different, so I don't understand the huge problem. Most likely if tutorial writers added a second step, the user would just copypasta the second step also.
Thankfully I followed this procedure after a co-worker sent me this: `curl -L http://bit.ly/10hA8iC | bash` ... was able to turn my speakers down first ;)
As I've mentioned in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5508680, for any alternative to be viable it must "work on all major platforms". APT is only used in Debian derivatives. How do you want to handle OS X users?
It would be lovely if there was a One True Software Distribution Format, but it's not going to happen. wgetting into a bash script is a terrible way to not really support any users properly :)
Neither is it going to happen that every developer spends considerable resources on creating packages for every platform. Just look at the popularity of curl installs, or even at the number of developers who don't bother to provide binaries and stick to source tarballs.
As I've mentioned here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5508680), people often freak out at curl commands, yet at the same time I've yet to see a viable proposal for an alternative.