When I go to install something I typically look for a virtual appliance to save me the time of having to build it out from scratch.  The packages themselves rarely take long to install, but there are always dependencies and then there’s something weird with CPAN or whatever.  Next thing I know I am I stuck in the mire of dependency hell.  Instead, these days I look for a virtual appliance first, which in many cases is built by the team who develops the package itself (be it commercial or FOSS). Virtual appliances in turn gives me more time to spend on configuration.  Furthermore, if everything is on a nice, light virtual machine then…