In general i dont like package management systems, too much bloat. But FreeBSD does it right. you can just invoke /stand/sysinstall , select the ports option from the menu, it connects to a ports server via ftp , and you select the programs you want to install. It downloads all the source and dependencies for you, configures and compiles, leaving very little mess on the system, it's a beautiful thing.
I have a few pc's at home running FreeBSD with apache and mysql on 200mb harddrives with some breathing space left on the disk.
I dont use linux much, but when i do i prefer the core linux distrobution.
http://coredistro.sourceforge.net/ It's a minimalist distro, no real package system, you compile everything from source, by hand, which isnt really that hard these days.
For some reason a lot of people seem to start off with a standard build of their favorite distro, and strip it down. I prefer to start off stripped and build up...
In general, i think most people dont care if their os takes a gig or two when they have 38 gigs free on the disk.
if you want a slim *nix box with a descent package management system check out freebsd or netbsd, you will probably like it. :-)
