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I switched to Brew back in... oh, 2012 or 2013, I think, because I was sick of MacPorts breaking itself horribly during normal operations (installing/uninstalli

I switched to Brew back in... oh, 2012 or 2013, I think, because I was sick of MacPorts breaking itself horribly during normal operations (installing/uninstalling) every 3-6 months. Brew’s huge package selection, rare breakage (sometimes on OS upgrades, usually easy to fix), decent UI, and ability to also manage nearly all the closed-source software I install, have kept me from bothering to look at MacPorts again.

kitsunesoba 5y ago
Similar here. I'm sure MacPorts has improved since then and I should probably give it a spin next time I have a fresh macOS install, but back in the late 00s and early 10s not only did I have issues with it breaking itself, but also constant issues with packages not compiling/installing, or if they did crashing due to some dependency issue. At that point in time I was a lot less technically capable, so on the rare occasion googling the issue would turn up a relevant mailing list archive, I usually wasn't able to act on it and I'd wind up procuring the package in question through some other method or just doing without. So when Homebrew came along and most things installed and ran fine with the rare issue that cropped up getting fixed fairly quickly, it easily stuck.
rcthompson 5y ago
I had a similar experience. I started out with macports, which seemed more familiar to me as a user of Linux package managers. But macports kept breaking in weird ways, until I finally tried homebrew, which didn't break. That was years ago, so maybe macports is better now, but homebrew has never given me a reason to switch away from it.
anaerobicover 5y ago
I have completely the opposite experience; brew would screw something up every other time I upgraded a package, and didn't cross OS updates very well at all. MacPorts has been rock-solid, possibly because it is more careful about making sure that ports have exactly the right deps.
- havernator 5y ago
  Weird. Macports is the one I was always having to edit packages for to un-break them, with a totally normal installation. Seemed like their packages were poorly-maintained. Must have gotten better I guess.
  - kergonath 5y ago
    I think this might have changed a bit over the years. I can’t remember last time I had to tinker to build a port. But you’re right, it wasn’t uncommon around 2010.

kitsunesoba 5y ago

Similar here. I'm sure MacPorts has improved since then and I should probably give it a spin next time I have a fresh macOS install, but back in the late 00s and early 10s not only did I have issues with it breaking itself, but also constant issues with packages not compiling/installing, or if they did crashing due to some dependency issue. At that point in time I was a lot less technically capable, so on the rare occasion googling the issue would turn up a relevant mailing list archive, I usually wasn't able to act on it and I'd wind up procuring the package in question through some other method or just doing without. So when Homebrew came along and most things installed and ran fine with the rare issue that cropped up getting fixed fairly quickly, it easily stuck.

rcthompson 5y ago

I had a similar experience. I started out with macports, which seemed more familiar to me as a user of Linux package managers. But macports kept breaking in weird ways, until I finally tried homebrew, which didn't break. That was years ago, so maybe macports is better now, but homebrew has never given me a reason to switch away from it.

anaerobicover 5y ago

I have completely the opposite experience; brew would screw something up every other time I upgraded a package, and didn't cross OS updates very well at all. MacPorts has been rock-solid, possibly because it is more careful about making sure that ports have exactly the right deps.

havernator 5y ago
Weird. Macports is the one I was always having to edit packages for to un-break them, with a totally normal installation. Seemed like their packages were poorly-maintained. Must have gotten better I guess.
- kergonath 5y ago
  I think this might have changed a bit over the years. I can’t remember last time I had to tinker to build a port. But you’re right, it wasn’t uncommon around 2010.