As others stated, binary package management is state-of-the-art now, thanks to the `pkg` command (aka the pkgng system). In fact I can never remember all the sub commands for apt+dpkg but pkg is a dream by comparison. I particularly like `pkg audit` - https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/pkgng-intro.html#pkgng-...
Btw, I would completely disagree that the sysadmin side is or was behind Debian. FreeBSD is way easier to sysadmin than most Linux, even without pkg.
> Btw, I would completely disagree that the sysadmin side is or was behind Debian. FreeBSD is way easier to sysadmin than most Linux, even without pkg.
This may be true now but it certainly wasn't the case in the early 2000s. When we switched, our number of systems went up by an order of magnitude (100s) but the amount of sysadmin time required actually went down. Consistent package management and debconf were most of the reason.
Interestingly I switched from Linux to FreeBSD around 2002, primarily because I was frustrated with Linux sysadmin.
Perhaps I was more of a newbie but the inconsistencies in Linux system organization and the confusing, low quality, half-obsolete docs, and unbounded time required for troubleshooting were some of the reasons. When I switched to FreeBSD and started using ports, my sysadmin time dropped significantly. But I was only using a single system.
You can configure ports the way that you like on one system. Then tarball /usr/local and bring the tarball to every other system. Just wipe out the existing /usr/local and replace it. This is supposed to be a feature that reduces time spent.
Btw, I would completely disagree that the sysadmin side is or was behind Debian. FreeBSD is way easier to sysadmin than most Linux, even without pkg.