I was referring to the tedious wait for the configure script. It might not seem so bad now, but what's a mild annoyance on modern computer with an SSD is quite the interruption on a few hundred MHz and spinning rust.

Another thing I wish it would do is give you all of the missing dependencies up front. Aain, not so bad now, but it was a major hassle for me when a missing dependency meant a long walk to the local library, 4gb flash drive in hand.