Well on OS X I googled for "how to rename a file" and "how to copy a file" (OS X file manager doesn't support cut+paste). On the other hand, I just installed vim on Ubuntu the other day with synaptic, no problems whatsoever.
you are at the mercy of repositories
"make install" on the other hand, gives you more freedom
vim patching problem was kinda solved by using intrepid repo instead of hardy's ... but also gave birth to other problems
To me, a unix system that is unable to compile from source (only binaries) is on the same level as windows
even on mac, i can use port, it fetches the sources and dependencies, compiles everything, beautiful!
NB: yes i did apt-get dev-compilers & libraries & dependencies
shrug I guess Ubuntu is not there yet
And OS X software installs freaked the hell out of me the first time I tried (ran the app from the package dir, and it didn't work properly).