"Erik E. Fair" <fair@clock.org> writes:

> There is another level to this - the package system leverages effort: while
> I am capable of porting and debugging a package on UNIX if I choose to, why
> should I have to recapitulate the effort of everyone who's ever "ported" a
> software package to NetBSD? It's not worth my time. The software package
> system gives me access to the collective efforts of everyone out there who
> contributes to it, and makes the NetBSD system *vastly* more easy to use
> and administrate.

This is _exactly_ why I love the package system even with its
problems.  I nearly always use package source, not binary packages, so
pkg_add is something I've never had to deal with.

Without packages, I would be spending a lot more time porting things
that have already been ported tens of times, and maintaining those
bits over OS and application version changes.  "cd ; make" is much
nicer.

--Michael