FreeBSD Ports vs. Gentoo Portage (a matter of concept)

[martinko]

On Wed, 08 Feb 2006 10:59:49 +1100, Norberto Meijome wrote
> martinko wrote:
> 
> > 
> > i already raised the following issue with pkgtools.sonf here on MLs some
> > time ago but i didn't get a response i'd be happy with:
> > i want to make sure that a certain port will be compiled with a certain
> > make argument/flag. there are MAKE_ARGS in port tools but these are
> > used/applied differently depending on whether the port is compiled
> > directly or indirectly via a metaport and also if it's being compiled
> > for the 1st time or again. :-((
> 
> hmm i wasn't aware of those subtleties... portupgrade + pkgtools.conf
> seem to behave pretty well to me (again, maybe they are not compiling
> the way I need with no negative side effects that I can notice.
> 
> > 
> > besides, i should say i'm using mainly FreeBSD and occasionally i'm
> > playing with Gentoo but i consider the quality and stability of ports
> > provided to be (much) better than that of apps via portage. also,
> > syncing and updating portage tree is much more heavy (by which i mean it
> > takes much longer and downloads much more data) than updating ports
> > collection
> 
> ah, definitely - fbsd port system seems to me much more stable and well
> behaved (it works as it should). and coupled with packages, it's just
> great.
> 
> > (especially since portsnap has appeared).
> 
> i have to say i still use cvsup...will have to give portsnap a try

cvsup is good. especially if you don't upgrade often. OTOH, portsnap is more
secure, network load friendly, and works behind proxies. and prepares ports
index file for you, too.

> 
> > not to mention that
> >  Gentoo's system/base layout is still heavy evolving and frequent
> > changes to the format, contents and location of their /etc files are
> > happening quite so often, which wouldn't make any admin too happy.
> >
> 
> true. though the system/layout it is evolving to is quite nice, IMHO.
> the "evolving too fast" feeling may come from being linux after all 
> ;) Again, i think it's the best distro around for powerusers.
> 
> Beto

i just don't know why they have to reinvent everything. freebsd's config files
overriding some defaults are pretty good idea, imho. on gentoo i remember to
have to merge my amended config files every time they added/changed something.
generally, this is one of the issues i see with linux. every distro tries to
reinvent the wheel and do the stuff differently. i think i quite understand
desire of their developers to create something new and best, but unix is where
it is because of its heritage and stability/compatibility, not because it's
been rewritten/reinvented from scratch every so often.
well, old unix gurus and developers with many years of experience and
knowledge are what i believe set BSDs apart from linux, which reminds me of my
young programming days and all that lack of knowledge and experience and all
those mistakes i've been through. :o)

m.