Things to Hope for in the Tarball

GNU standard package
toolname-version.tar.gz where version has no dashes
unravels to a directory of same name without .tar.gz
configureable with ./configure (autoconf/automake)
simple make, make install builds and installs software
DESTDIR variable provided and obeyed
No need to be root to build or install
Adherence to the Filesystem Heirarchy Standard