title: Why do people use tarballs?
body: <p>As a primarily Windows developer, perhaps I'm missing something cultural in the Linux community, but it has always confused me.</p>
  
  <p>When downloading something that the files are first put into a <code>.tar</code> archive then <em>zipped</em>. Why the two-step process? Doesn't <em>zipping</em> achieve the file grouping? Is there some other benefit that I'm not aware of?</p>