Thread: Why ports?
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Old 13th July 2008
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scottro scottro is offline
Real Name: Scott Robbins
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To elaborate a little more on ports--they sometimes have a newer version than does the package. Plus they allow more flexibility in configuration.

It's a bit of a trade off, but most of the time, not really a noticeable one.

However, there are over 16,000 ports and not all have packages, especially for say, CURRENT. There are ports vs. packages threads all over, including, I believe, in the handbook. For mozilla, for example, with its long compile time especially when the chances are that you won't be customizing the installation, packages are almost certainly the better choice.
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