As an end user, I like how simple autotools is to build a project:
./configure && make && make install
And I like that I can very easily see all the various build options:
./configure --help
I don't like that configure takes a long time and checks things that don't seem like they really need to be checked. Nor do I like how difficult autotools is to use as a developer (I have some, but not much experience working on a project using autotools, over a decade ago).
I've yet to see a competing build system that makes the end user usage and option discovery as simple.
Edit: I've not necessarily used and explored all the various build systems, but the few I have used have generally not been as simple, or at least weren't to me obviously as simple.
I've yet to see a competing build system that makes the end user usage and option discovery as simple.
Edit: I've not necessarily used and explored all the various build systems, but the few I have used have generally not been as simple, or at least weren't to me obviously as simple.