4.2.1. Why have a Ports Collection?

The base FreeBSD system comes with a very wide range of tools and system utilities, but a lot of popular programs are not in the base system, for good reasons:-

1. ``I can not live without x y and z on my system'' type programs (eg a certain Lisp-based editor, or the mtools set of programs for dealing with DOS floppy disks), because it is too subjective (many people can not stand Emacs and/or never use DOS floppies and seem none the worse for it).
2. Too specialised to put in the base system (CAD, databases).
3. Programs which fall into the ``I would not mind having a look at that when I get a spare minute'' category, rather than system-critical ones (some languages, perhaps).
4. ``Wow fab this is way cool'' fun type programs that could not possibly be supplied with a serious operating system like FreeBSD ;-)
5. However many programs you put in the base system, people will always want more, and a line has to be drawn somewhere (otherwise FreeBSD distributions would become absolutely enormous).

Obviously it would be unreasonable to expect everyone to port their favourite programs by hand (not to mention a tremendous amount of duplicated work), so the FreeBSD Project came up with an ingenious way of using standard tools that would automate the process.

Incidentally, this is an excellent illustration of how ``the Unix way'' works in practice by combining a set of simple but very flexible tools into something very powerful.