[tex-live] TeXLive has no stable source tree and resorts to DVD with binaries?

[Karl Berry]

    I'm here to get a short answer weather I've got it right, that
    TeXLive currently doesn't maintain any separate source tree for
    stable releases 

Well, it's true that TL only has one source repository.  We make
tags/branches at releases of course, but almost never make changes to
the compiled programs between releases.

    and the tested software gets distributed only by
    collective efforts of composing binaries & co. So it's true?

Many of the programs in TeX Live are maintained, released, and
distributed separately from TL; for example, lcdf-typetools and dvipng.
In such cases, the upstream authors make releases as they will and we
take whatever is current for our yearly release.

Best,
karl