On Tue, 01 Feb 2005 09:02:53 -0500
Tim Gallagher <tim.gallagher@earthlink.net> wrote:

> I am very familiar with Gentoo's package distribution,
[...]
> My question is, is there something similar in NetBSD?
NetBSD is devided into the base system and additional software from 3rd
parties. The later is managed by pkgsrc, a system similar to that from
gentoo. (In fact the basic idea behind the gentoo system is taken from
pkgsrc.)

The usual way is to get the source for the base system and pkgsrc via
anonymous CVS and rebuild everything. The base system can be cross
build. There is a stable / release branch of the base system. Only bug
fixes go into that branch. And there is -current, the developement
branch of the base system. Here you get all new features but you have to
be prepared for instabilities. Pkgsrc is branched for a stable tree
every three mounths.

Here is more information about this topics:
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/current/
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/updating.html
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/software/packages.html
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