3 ms·

And that's the end of Homebrew for me as a user. I like the app, but my old Intel MacBook apparently can't handle it anymore. I'm back to the old installation

And that's the end of Homebrew for me as a user. I like the app, but my old Intel MacBook apparently can't handle it anymore. I'm back to the old installation methods !

yladiz 20d ago
How long do you expect them to support Intel processors though? It’s been like 6 years since the last MacBook release had any Intel processor, and Apple doesn’t make OS updates anymore, so it doesn’t surprise me that Homebrew stopped too.
- basiliobeltran 20d ago
  I have one of the last Intel Macs and works perfectly fine (on Sonoma). How long should I expect working tech being supported? I am already looking at Linux, but still need to get out of the Apple ecosystem. I am not going to spend +2500 Euros every 5 years on a laptop
  - lnenad 20d ago
    What does saying "working tech" do for you? If I have a working Samsung CRT from 25 years ago do I ping them about smart TV support? Nowadays it's a shitty situation with planned obsolescence; but 6 years for an open source project dedicating resources to a dead end is more than enough and appreciated.
    - deleted 20d ago
      [deleted]
  - mrpippy 20d ago
    Sonoma will be getting its last security update imminently (possibly tomorrow).
- watermelon0 20d ago
  Are you implying that a 6 year old hardware is as good as a paperweight? Outside of the Apple fairyland this is just bonkers. I'm not blaming the Homebrew project/developers here, but the fact that many people are okay with deprecating perfectly fine hardware.
  - nebezb 20d ago
    No, he’s asking what you think a reasonable support timeline is. An open source project supporting hardware 6 years old is pretty awesome.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 20d ago
      NixOS is an open source project that runs great on my 2013 Dell laptop. I think the real point of distinction is that brew depends on Apple's OS and SDK, which somewhat ties their hands, while other OSs don't.
    - ryandrake 20d ago
      6 years is really not a long time at all. You can probably find heaps of open source software out there that compiles and runs perfectly on 20 year old PCs. It's not like the maintainer has to do much to retain support--they just have to not make the software dependent on new operating systems. Bits don't rot.
      - richwater 20d ago
        How many of those 20 year old projects had to go through an architecture change that the manufacturer no longs supports? Come on man be reasonable.
        ryandrake 20d ago
        Homebrew doesn't have to lift a finger to support Intel Macs. It already does! All they have to do is not kill support for them. Hey, it's their software, they are all volunteers and can do whatever they want. I'm grateful for the short window of time in which I was able to use their software. I don't get to decide their support period, but I will still hopelessly complain about it. "Deliberately breaking compatibility with a computer because it is old" is my biggest axe to grind with the whole software industry, and I'll shake my fists at this cloud until I die.
- trvz 20d ago
  And given the performance jump from Intel to Apple Silicon, the perceived difference is 10+ years even.
  - larodi 20d ago
    Sure, but 2019s Intel Macs are aboslutely usable for most tasks, and given much of the agentic dev. happens... somewhere remotely, it is more an opportunity to reuse this equipment for various tasks, rather than pollute the already dirty Earth with more electronic waste.
    - trvz 20d ago
      1) usable for most tasks != pleasent to use for most tasks 2) using an Intel Mac as your main computer, for most tasks != using it as a home server
- vor_ 19d ago
  Years, honestly. After all, Intel Macs just received a major macOS release from Apple only 12 months ago. MacPorts manages to support all the way back to Leopard!
alex7o 20d ago
[flagged]
wltr 20d ago
Have you tried Mac Ports?
mikae1 20d ago
Actually, Homebrew 7 is supported on your Mac, you just have to install Linux to use it. :) If you want to continue using the same MacBook that will be only path forward when Apple decides to EOL it (if it hasn't already happened). I'm a long time Homebrew on Linux user, it works really well. I always prefer it over the distro supplied package manager for user facing CLI apps.
- sethops1 20d ago
  Apple was selling Intel Mac Pros in 2023, it's absurd these things are coming up on EOL already.
  - vor_ 19d ago
    Check out MacPorts. It was the original package manager, still going strong, and it supports Macs going all the way back to the Leopard era. It also always used /opt instead of taking over /usr/bin like Homebrew.
    - qn9n 19d ago
      I always found it much slower when compared to brew and sometimes would just hang and get stuck when installing something. Plus the lack of casks does make it less of a direct replacement.
daliusd 20d ago
Same here, but I understand their position. Meanwhile I rely on packages publishing builds for Intel Mac in GitHub (surprisingly a lot) or building from source code. I just asked AI to build me install system.
Achterlangs 20d ago
FYI Macos will also stop with major updates for Intel macs. You can just keep using brew 6 on macos 26.
wpm 20d ago
MacPorts has been there this whole time.
asimovDev 20d ago
I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy, you copy the package names you installed with brew, uninstall homebrew (there's an unisntall script on brew.sh FAQ section, it will also uninstall all homebrew packages (but not the casks)) then install macports and reinstall the packages with sudo port. Although the selection is smaller on macports and newer packages might not have a prebuilt pkg for your OS so you still might end up building manually (My poor i5 4core had to attempt building nodejs26 because there wasn't a pkg for Ventura)
ActionHank 20d ago
I’m installing Linux on my 2019 16” today.
supriyo-biswas 20d ago
I've used MacPorts on macOS versions that don't support the latest OS, which per homebrew policy seems to be versions upto N-2. Apart from the issue of having to compile the downloaded software leading to spinning fans, I'm not too concerned.
VCFundedGenYer 20d ago
You do realize Intel support is gone, right? You won't be installing anything on your Intel Mac very soon...

And that's the end of Homebrew for me as a user. I like the app, but my old Intel MacBook apparently can't handle it anymore. I'm back to the old installation methods !

yladiz 20d ago

How long do you expect them to support Intel processors though? It’s been like 6 years since the last MacBook release had any Intel processor, and Apple doesn’t make OS updates anymore, so it doesn’t surprise me that Homebrew stopped too.

basiliobeltran 20d ago
I have one of the last Intel Macs and works perfectly fine (on Sonoma). How long should I expect working tech being supported? I am already looking at Linux, but still need to get out of the Apple ecosystem. I am not going to spend +2500 Euros every 5 years on a laptop
- lnenad 20d ago
  What does saying "working tech" do for you? If I have a working Samsung CRT from 25 years ago do I ping them about smart TV support? Nowadays it's a shitty situation with planned obsolescence; but 6 years for an open source project dedicating resources to a dead end is more than enough and appreciated.
  - deleted 20d ago
    [deleted]
- mrpippy 20d ago
  Sonoma will be getting its last security update imminently (possibly tomorrow).
watermelon0 20d ago
Are you implying that a 6 year old hardware is as good as a paperweight? Outside of the Apple fairyland this is just bonkers. I'm not blaming the Homebrew project/developers here, but the fact that many people are okay with deprecating perfectly fine hardware.
- nebezb 20d ago
  No, he’s asking what you think a reasonable support timeline is. An open source project supporting hardware 6 years old is pretty awesome.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 20d ago
    NixOS is an open source project that runs great on my 2013 Dell laptop. I think the real point of distinction is that brew depends on Apple's OS and SDK, which somewhat ties their hands, while other OSs don't.
  - ryandrake 20d ago
    6 years is really not a long time at all. You can probably find heaps of open source software out there that compiles and runs perfectly on 20 year old PCs. It's not like the maintainer has to do much to retain support--they just have to not make the software dependent on new operating systems. Bits don't rot.
    - richwater 20d ago
      How many of those 20 year old projects had to go through an architecture change that the manufacturer no longs supports? Come on man be reasonable.
      - ryandrake 20d ago
        Homebrew doesn't have to lift a finger to support Intel Macs. It already does! All they have to do is not kill support for them. Hey, it's their software, they are all volunteers and can do whatever they want. I'm grateful for the short window of time in which I was able to use their software. I don't get to decide their support period, but I will still hopelessly complain about it. "Deliberately breaking compatibility with a computer because it is old" is my biggest axe to grind with the whole software industry, and I'll shake my fists at this cloud until I die.
trvz 20d ago
And given the performance jump from Intel to Apple Silicon, the perceived difference is 10+ years even.
- larodi 20d ago
  Sure, but 2019s Intel Macs are aboslutely usable for most tasks, and given much of the agentic dev. happens... somewhere remotely, it is more an opportunity to reuse this equipment for various tasks, rather than pollute the already dirty Earth with more electronic waste.
  - trvz 20d ago
    1) usable for most tasks != pleasent to use for most tasks 2) using an Intel Mac as your main computer, for most tasks != using it as a home server
vor_ 19d ago
Years, honestly. After all, Intel Macs just received a major macOS release from Apple only 12 months ago. MacPorts manages to support all the way back to Leopard!

alex7o 20d ago

[flagged]

wltr 20d ago

Have you tried Mac Ports?

mikae1 20d ago

Actually, Homebrew 7 is supported on your Mac, you just have to install Linux to use it. :) If you want to continue using the same MacBook that will be only path forward when Apple decides to EOL it (if it hasn't already happened). I'm a long time Homebrew on Linux user, it works really well. I always prefer it over the distro supplied package manager for user facing CLI apps.

sethops1 20d ago
Apple was selling Intel Mac Pros in 2023, it's absurd these things are coming up on EOL already.
- vor_ 19d ago
  Check out MacPorts. It was the original package manager, still going strong, and it supports Macs going all the way back to the Leopard era. It also always used /opt instead of taking over /usr/bin like Homebrew.
  - qn9n 19d ago
    I always found it much slower when compared to brew and sometimes would just hang and get stuck when installing something. Plus the lack of casks does make it less of a direct replacement.

daliusd 20d ago

Same here, but I understand their position. Meanwhile I rely on packages publishing builds for Intel Mac in GitHub (surprisingly a lot) or building from source code. I just asked AI to build me install system.

Achterlangs 20d ago

FYI Macos will also stop with major updates for Intel macs. You can just keep using brew 6 on macos 26.

wpm 20d ago

MacPorts has been there this whole time.

asimovDev 20d ago

I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy, you copy the package names you installed with brew, uninstall homebrew (there's an unisntall script on brew.sh FAQ section, it will also uninstall all homebrew packages (but not the casks)) then install macports and reinstall the packages with sudo port. Although the selection is smaller on macports and newer packages might not have a prebuilt pkg for your OS so you still might end up building manually (My poor i5 4core had to attempt building nodejs26 because there wasn't a pkg for Ventura)

ActionHank 20d ago

I’m installing Linux on my 2019 16” today.

supriyo-biswas 20d ago

I've used MacPorts on macOS versions that don't support the latest OS, which per homebrew policy seems to be versions upto N-2. Apart from the issue of having to compile the downloaded software leading to spinning fans, I'm not too concerned.

VCFundedGenYer 20d ago

You do realize Intel support is gone, right? You won't be installing anything on your Intel Mac very soon...