IMO it doesn't matter if there are better alternatives, as that's mostly a concern for new projects. The thing is, there's a good chance that you'll have to use

IMO it doesn't matter if there are better alternatives, as that's mostly a concern for new projects. The thing is, there's a good chance that you'll have to use autoconf at least once in your dev life, sooner or later, because very large number of major opensource projects use it (with no clear intent to switch). So at least you've got to be prepared and know how autotools are working.