I've been using Linux for 9 years. I'm using a minimalistic ditro (the live CD is just a very basic command line, and doesn't even have an installer; aside from copying the OS from the server to HDD, everything is done manually from command line). I don't have Windows installed. I am quite familiar with Linux. Also, I know what "sh" is. I've written shell scripts before. I also know that they are often used for distro-agnostic installers, and its not just IBM that uses them.
I think you are are using the term "install" a bit narrowly. Simply copying programs into place is an installation process. Package files are installers. They contain the files to run the program, and instructions for the package manager to follow in order to make sure everything ends up in the right place, and all configuration are set. If that isn't what an installer does, then please, tell me what an installer really is.
I know you can go from deb --> tarbar, and I've read guides to do so thinking I would need to (luckily I did not need to), though I would like to avoid that if possible. I'm much fonder of the idea of running sh DOS.sh as opposed to tearing apart a deb.
Also, I have only twice encountered a tarball that didn't follow the extract --> config --> make --> make install paradigm. The two were Rochard from a Humble Bundle and par2-tbb (the later of which was surprising as I would have expected that to be compiled for each machine).
