> Portage is great. It is based on the BSD ports tree > concept, which means you have a directory tree of > software categories (net, games, security, etc...) > with apps in each category to install, minus the > source code. You browse the dirs, find what you want, > then 'emerge desiredappname'. Portage looks at the > build script for the app, downloads the source code > from the authoritative source, then compiles it.
Excellent, I took a look at the list of packages in the portage tree on their homepage, and it seems like they keep everything up to date, very nice. I'm assuming it's fairly easy to update your portage tree also. Is there a simple command to do that also? > Now that I think about it, how many people on this > mailing list have an interest in *BSD? That depends on what the word interest includes. I'm interested for sure. The only thing that turns me off to BSD is the perceived lack of applications. Of course I may be wrong, but it seems like there's so much more to choose from with linux. Of course, I'm probably wrong in that respect. I have noticed that the BSD community is far less....let me put this nicely...confrontational. People in the linux community can get quite mean sometimes. Not that anyone on this list is, but linux message boards are not safe for those who may be labeled a "newb". They're also quite militant when it comes to the opposition of microsoft. I bet you there's a huge difference in blood pressure readings when comparing BSD and Linux users. :-)
