Why do so many How-To:s recommend installing from ports rather than just pkg install

[n3mmr]

E g for mrtg and other mature SW, compiling from ports is unreasonably slow and gets next to no improvements.
I think.

Then, again, I'm more or less a newbie in FreeBSD. So please consider my question sincere.

 

[Jailer]

In a nutshell, options and dependencies. Packages are built with a specific set of options enabled and certain dependencies. If you want something other than the default you have to install from ports and choose your options.

@Joshua Parker Ruehlig owncloud tutorial is a good example. He builds his Owncloud instance with php7. You can install Owncloud via pkg but the default dependencies are php5.6.

I have a proxy server set up using nginx installed from ports because the package version is built against the base openssl in FreeBSD 10.3 and doesn't support the latest openssl options.

Another reason would be that some binaries aren't offered as a package and must be installed from ports if you want to run them.

 

[n3mmr]

So, REALLY, the FreeBSD environment doesn't lend itself too well to long term supportable applications.

The FreeNAS build over FreeBSD is one thing, FreeBSD seems to form a good base for appliances, but why is there no good strategy in place for long term supportability of applications??

 

[danb35]

So, REALLY, the FreeBSD environment doesn't lend itself too well to long term supportable applications.

What does this have to do with ports vs. pkg?