Simplify build process

@cap @stephentu 
I don't have a preference as to which is the default-- I'd be fine linking against this `DIST_THROW_ON_ERROR` version.

The only thing we disagree on is name: to me a debug build is build with no gcc optimizations (e.g. something I can put in gdb and not have the variables optimized out etc). And I think this is the common view, so new users of distributions might be confused initially.