Why is TeX such a mess?

The simplest, modern route to using T_EX is to download TeX Live, but it's such a huge mess. Even the lightest installation can be hundreds of megabytes, and there are so many files it needs its own package management system.

Why can't I just download pdftex and run pdftex foo.tex and get a PDF? Why is there so much cruft for what is supposed to be ``traditional'' UNIX software?

>>22
TeX itself has no dependency on anything other than standard Pascal. Knuth explicitly designed it like that, which is why it has its own memory allocator, etc.

>>24 see >>26
And if you really want LaTeX then include this at the top of your source files or dump it into a .fmt for preloading:
http://www.tex.ac.uk/CTAN/macros/latex/unpacked/latex.ltx
(See also http://my.opera.com/Michael-Dodl/blog/2011/06/24/latex-disabling-the-5-year-time-bomb and http://preney.ca/paul/archives/198 to remove a bit of WTF-ness.)

>>30
trollololololoff