From: "Richard Rauch" <rauch@rice.edu>
> First, how different the two (binary packages vs. pkgsrc) are depends on
> your point of view.  Binary packages are just the output of pkgsrc,
> collected for quicker installation.  But because they are precompiled,
> there are various pkgsrc options that get ``built into'' binary packages.
> E.g., default paper size: If you built from pkgsrc, you could set the
> default paper size and (in theory) all packages that care about paper size
> should respect this default setting.  If you install from binary packages,
> you may have to find/configure each package that cares about paper size.

One nice thing about using pkgsrc is that you can specify compiler options
in your mk.conf file that will be used when building your programs.  Binary
packages will probably be compiled for least-common-denominator machines
(e.g., 80386 for x86 machines, or 21064 for Alphas), but you can specify
your particular processor, and have the compiler optimize the final binary
for better performance on your machine.

I should also say that I've only had one problem compiling from source, and
I've installed a couple of dozen packages.  It's actually quite impressive
to watch the source come down, then be compiled and installed.  The package
system is a pretty slick piece of work.

Cheers!
-- Tracy Nelson