It did not take long to get an answer, and the answer I got left me decidedly unsurprised. Having come from the linux world, he was disappointed with the state of package management on OSX. My thoughts exactly.

Now, before every random reader writes me off as an idiot and troll, let me qualify this opinion. Yes, I have heard of Macports (so had the person with whom I was conversing). Macports, as awesome as it is, has always seemed to me a bit too much of a hack, and at its best, a less than ideal solution. I miss the feeling of complete integration I get with something like pacman and Arch. These thoughts have only gained strength since the release of Snow Leopard, where half the programs I need will not install — not simply, anyway — under the macports system. Why, when I first open the beautiful packaging of an Apple computer, can I not begin to explore all manner of open source goodness? Why is there no native management system, along the lines of apt-get, yum, or pacman?

I will readily admit that these complaints fall well within the I want a pony mentality. But that said, what difficulties (or possibly, incentives) prevent Apple from establishing an official package management system? Is it simply not worth the time required to do so? Legal issues? I am young and ignorant, so quite honestly, I’d like to hear more experienced thoughts on the matter.