Boost is so inconvenient, they're huge dynamic libraries that are a pain to build and use. Even when I was already using CMake, getting Boost installed in a way where it could be discovered was super annoying. (I was on Mac, though)

Asio also comes in standalone form and both versions are header-only. Not necessarily directly related to your comment but adding it on, anyway.

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Some (most?) Boost libraries are header-only. Including Boost.Asio nowadays.

You can statically link boost