It really doesn't work much like fink or BSD's Portage. Maybe it's supposed to, but it doesn't. So many packages are broken; dependencies fail to build for all kinds of reasons. A giant time waster. It's a shame some interesting software is offered and some software authors seem to rely on macports for their OS X releases.

I for one do not buy the BS about installing macports wholly seperate fomr OS X. This requires the installation of sometimes enormous amounts of redundant software and prevents the convenient use of macports to install things to complie other sources against the way one can, seemlessly, with fink. This is a nice idea very poorly done.