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MacPorts has far more packages than Homebrew and was implemented by the creator of the original FreeBSD ports system, who was also an employee on Apple’s UNIX t

MacPorts has far more packages than Homebrew and was implemented by the creator of the original FreeBSD ports system, who was also an employee on Apple’s UNIX team. MacPorts is the standard macOS package manager.

michaelsbradley 2y ago
What do you mean by “standard”? I like MacPorts, but most macOS using developers I’ve conversed with over the past 12+ years never heard of it, while all of them used Homebrew. Maybe it depends on what developer circles one inhabits.
- mikrl 2y ago
  I have only ever used macports, but my first and only MacBook was salvaged from bigcorp IT, and is a 2009 model so homebrew is too new for it. I’ve dabbled in BSD before and I can definitely see the correspondence between Macports and freeBSD ports. I assume homebrew tries to be more similar to apt or yum.
  - michaelsbradley 2y ago
    Yes, one of several nice things about MacPorts is the continued support for older macs, macOS/OSX versions.
    - wpm 2y ago
      MacPorts is a godsend on older Macs. Takes forever to compile stuff on a G3 though :)
      - mikrl 2y ago
        How did people compile emacs on 2 cores in the old days? :O
- marxisttemp 2y ago
  Just a play on “ed is the standard text editor”. But, by all measures, MacPorts is more standard than Homebrew. Such as being implemented by an Apple employee who also created the official (source-based) package manager for the most popular BSD. Homebrew definitely has a lot more market share though, much to my chagrin. The only other MacPorts users I’ve met in person are people I convinced to switch.
renewedrebecca 2y ago
> MacPorts is the standard macOS package manager. No, it's not. macOS does not have a standard package manager.
- marxisttemp 2y ago
  https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.en.html https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.en.html
- marxisttemp 2y ago
  Worth noting https://developer.apple.com/documentation/packagedescription/systempackageprovider https://developer.apple.com/documentation/packagedescription...: case aptItem case brewItem case nugetItem case yumItem >:(
watersb 2y ago
I have always preferred BSD-style ports trees, which emphasize building the packages from source code. Easier to patch the source when needed, when adapting (porting) the package to a new environment. This made it easier to adapt large collections of packages to new versions of macOS. Or to adopt the latest version of a package. Easier for integration testing for my application. It doesn't surprise me at all that MacPorts has a larger collection of packages than HomeBrew. My other ride is Gentoo Linux. :-)

michaelsbradley 2y ago

What do you mean by “standard”? I like MacPorts, but most macOS using developers I’ve conversed with over the past 12+ years never heard of it, while all of them used Homebrew. Maybe it depends on what developer circles one inhabits.

mikrl 2y ago
I have only ever used macports, but my first and only MacBook was salvaged from bigcorp IT, and is a 2009 model so homebrew is too new for it. I’ve dabbled in BSD before and I can definitely see the correspondence between Macports and freeBSD ports. I assume homebrew tries to be more similar to apt or yum.
- michaelsbradley 2y ago
  Yes, one of several nice things about MacPorts is the continued support for older macs, macOS/OSX versions.
  - wpm 2y ago
    MacPorts is a godsend on older Macs. Takes forever to compile stuff on a G3 though :)
    - mikrl 2y ago
      How did people compile emacs on 2 cores in the old days? :O
marxisttemp 2y ago
Just a play on “ed is the standard text editor”. But, by all measures, MacPorts is more standard than Homebrew. Such as being implemented by an Apple employee who also created the official (source-based) package manager for the most popular BSD. Homebrew definitely has a lot more market share though, much to my chagrin. The only other MacPorts users I’ve met in person are people I convinced to switch.

renewedrebecca 2y ago

> MacPorts is the standard macOS package manager. No, it's not. macOS does not have a standard package manager.

marxisttemp 2y ago
https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.en.html https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.en.html
marxisttemp 2y ago
Worth noting https://developer.apple.com/documentation/packagedescription/systempackageprovider https://developer.apple.com/documentation/packagedescription...: case aptItem case brewItem case nugetItem case yumItem >:(

watersb 2y ago

I have always preferred BSD-style ports trees, which emphasize building the packages from source code. Easier to patch the source when needed, when adapting (porting) the package to a new environment. This made it easier to adapt large collections of packages to new versions of macOS. Or to adopt the latest version of a package. Easier for integration testing for my application. It doesn't surprise me at all that MacPorts has a larger collection of packages than HomeBrew. My other ride is Gentoo Linux. :-)