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Why is homebrew the worst? Do you have a recommendation for something better? I default to homebrew out of inertia but would love to learn more.
by tghccxs 1y ago
Why is homebrew the worst? Do you have a recommendation for something better? I default to homebrew out of inertia but would love to learn more.
- CharlesW 1y agoMacPorts is a good alternative, but you'll find that Homebrew is absolutely not the worst. Personally, I find brew fast and reliable. Look at mise (`brew install mise`) for managing any developer dependencies. https://mise.jdx.dev/ https://mise.jdx.dev/
- fouc 1y agoLately I've been using devbox (nix wrapper) for my homebrew-like needs via "devbox global add <whatever>", for project specific setup I stick with mise (asdf-compatible)." I don't like homebrew because I've been burnt multiple times because it often auto-updates when you least want it to and breaks project dependencies. And there's no way to downgrade to a specific version. Real package managers typically support versioning.
- antihero 1y agoIf you're depending on specific versions, don't use a general system package manager, use something like mise or asdf.
- chme 1y agonix possible with lix, if you can stomach nix syntax.
- fouc 1y agodevbox is a nice wrapper for nix syntax. thanks for the tip about lix, it looks like I can use devbox+lix instead of the determinate nix installer.
- snickerdoodle12 1y agoapt and yum/dnf are pretty great
- ryao 1y agoI am a fan of Gentoo Prefix. Others like pkgsrc.
- fouc 1y agoI've heard of some people using pkgsrc as their package manager in macOS. First time I heard about Gentoo Prefix. neat!
- xmodem 1y agoI've been using MacPorts since before homebrew existed and never switched away.