5 ms·

Homebrew 4.1.0

48 points by mikemcquaid 3y ago

frankjr 3y ago
Happy to see some performance improvements. Homebrew is extremely slow compared to Linux counterparts I usually work with (e.g. Pacman).
- TillE 3y ago
  Do you need to install software really quickly? Performance is nice, but I understand why it's a low priority. I guess it can save you a few billable minutes with CI runners, but otherwise speed probably isn't a huge deal for most users.
  - frankjr 3y ago
    Do I need to? Not really, but I certainly want to. I absolutely hate waiting and there's no reason why it cannot be done as fast as my internet speed allows.
  - Timon3 3y ago
    I need to install software as quickly as possible. My job isn't to install software, it's to create things with software. The installation time isn't productive. So why does my package manager need to auto-update itself for 1-2 minutes every time I use it, forcing me to wait unnecessarily long and taking me out of my workflow?
Hackbraten 3y ago
> We destroyed (and did not migrate/back up) all of Homebrew’s Google Analytics data on 2023-06-16 and all Google Analytics code has been removed. Glad to read that.
- xenophonf 3y ago
  They should not have collected that data in the first place. If you're new to Homebrew, make sure to set the environment variable HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS to 1 before downloading and installing it. Otherwise, it defaults to spying on you. https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics
  - unixhero 3y ago
    It was probably useful for running a massive global software distribution solution.
    - yroc92 3y ago
      Yeah I don't understand that logic. How do you improve or even know what's going on with the service if you have no analytics?
    - einherjae 3y ago
      Opt-in would still allow for that.
      - orf 3y ago
        Can you explain to us all why reducing the data you gather to a self-selecting 0.1% of users would still allow for it being useful?
        Longhanks 3y ago
        Can you explain why monitoring user-specific behavior and reporting that to unknown, foreign locations outside of your jurisdiction (for most people) should be allowed in the first place?
        unixhero 3y ago
        It is systems monitoring, not user behavior. This is allowed as per the GDPR, and morally uncomplicated.
        xenophonf 3y ago
        That's not relevant. In scientific research involving people, participant recruiting and informed consent is the norm, and those studies lead to ground-breaking, life-saving research. Anything other than informed consent is unethical. Opt-out telemetry isn't ok when a large corporation does it, and it isn't ok when a free/libre/open source software project does it. That the Homebrew devs feel the need to spy on all their users in order to get statistically meaningful data means they probably don't know how to properly conduct a research study, too.
SamuelAdams 3y ago
> We’ve made many improvements around the new 4.0.0 feature of using JSON files downloaded from formulae.brew.sh for package installation rather than local homebrew/core and homebrew/cask taps. Curious to see the code on this. I read a good blog post a while back about updating how JSON was parsed for significant performance improvements. I wonder if the same concepts could be applied to home brew. https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-I-cut-GTA-Online-loading-times-by-70/ https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-I-cut-GTA-Online-loading-times... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26296339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26296339
liquid153 3y ago
homebrew sucks it's super slow
- rad_gruchalski 3y ago
  What alternatives can you recommend? What makes them better?
  - rogue7 3y ago
    I've been using nix through devbox [0] & direnv recently for an elixir project. The experience has been good so far: - Fully reproducible. - Does not install things globally, rather on a per-project (directory) basis. - Reasonably fast One of the downsides is that cutting-edge releases of packages are not available as quickly as with other means. [0] : https://www.jetpack.io/devbox/ https://www.jetpack.io/devbox/

48 points by mikemcquaid 3y ago

Happy to see some performance improvements. Homebrew is extremely slow compared to Linux counterparts I usually work with (e.g. Pacman).

TillE 3y ago
Do you need to install software really quickly? Performance is nice, but I understand why it's a low priority. I guess it can save you a few billable minutes with CI runners, but otherwise speed probably isn't a huge deal for most users.
- frankjr 3y ago
  Do I need to? Not really, but I certainly want to. I absolutely hate waiting and there's no reason why it cannot be done as fast as my internet speed allows.
- Timon3 3y ago
  I need to install software as quickly as possible. My job isn't to install software, it's to create things with software. The installation time isn't productive. So why does my package manager need to auto-update itself for 1-2 minutes every time I use it, forcing me to wait unnecessarily long and taking me out of my workflow?

Hackbraten 3y ago

> We destroyed (and did not migrate/back up) all of Homebrew’s Google Analytics data on 2023-06-16 and all Google Analytics code has been removed. Glad to read that.

xenophonf 3y ago
They should not have collected that data in the first place. If you're new to Homebrew, make sure to set the environment variable HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS to 1 before downloading and installing it. Otherwise, it defaults to spying on you. https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics
- unixhero 3y ago
  It was probably useful for running a massive global software distribution solution.
  - yroc92 3y ago
    Yeah I don't understand that logic. How do you improve or even know what's going on with the service if you have no analytics?
  - einherjae 3y ago
    Opt-in would still allow for that.
    - orf 3y ago
      Can you explain to us all why reducing the data you gather to a self-selecting 0.1% of users would still allow for it being useful?
      - Longhanks 3y ago
        Can you explain why monitoring user-specific behavior and reporting that to unknown, foreign locations outside of your jurisdiction (for most people) should be allowed in the first place?
        unixhero 3y ago
        It is systems monitoring, not user behavior. This is allowed as per the GDPR, and morally uncomplicated.
      - xenophonf 3y ago
        That's not relevant. In scientific research involving people, participant recruiting and informed consent is the norm, and those studies lead to ground-breaking, life-saving research. Anything other than informed consent is unethical. Opt-out telemetry isn't ok when a large corporation does it, and it isn't ok when a free/libre/open source software project does it. That the Homebrew devs feel the need to spy on all their users in order to get statistically meaningful data means they probably don't know how to properly conduct a research study, too.

SamuelAdams 3y ago

> We’ve made many improvements around the new 4.0.0 feature of using JSON files downloaded from formulae.brew.sh for package installation rather than local homebrew/core and homebrew/cask taps. Curious to see the code on this. I read a good blog post a while back about updating how JSON was parsed for significant performance improvements. I wonder if the same concepts could be applied to home brew. https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-I-cut-GTA-Online-loading-times-by-70/ https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-I-cut-GTA-Online-loading-times... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26296339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26296339

liquid153 3y ago

homebrew sucks it's super slow

rad_gruchalski 3y ago
What alternatives can you recommend? What makes them better?
- rogue7 3y ago
  I've been using nix through devbox [0] & direnv recently for an elixir project. The experience has been good so far: - Fully reproducible. - Does not install things globally, rather on a per-project (directory) basis. - Reasonably fast One of the downsides is that cutting-edge releases of packages are not available as quickly as with other means. [0] : https://www.jetpack.io/devbox/ https://www.jetpack.io/devbox/