Thoughts on macOS Package Managers

Re:Thoughts on macOS Package Managers by brainfeed0 on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:15AM (#19785340)

Where to begin. it's a Homebrew hit-piece extolling how the inaccessible and system-modifying MacPorts is "superior." Bologna! I don't trust MacPorts, it's old, confusing, has terrible UX and promotes system-entropy increase (read: weird gotchas and eventual reinstalls). Leave my goddamn system alone. I don't trust giving a community package sudo.. ever. I don't pipe bash into shell, so no sudo for you either, mister package manager.

No sale.

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Re:Thoughts on macOS Package Managers by saagarjha on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:33AM (#19785395)

> I don't trust MacPorts, it's old, confusing, has terrible UX and promotes system-entropy increase

MacPorts is old, but I think that's a good thing: it's robust and well designed–at least compared to Homebrew, I feel. It's lacking a bit of color and a few emojis, but usability isn't that bad (in fact, I would say it has fewer surprises, because commands usually do exactly what they expect you to and nothing else behind your back).

> I don't pipe bash into shell, so no sudo for you either, mister package manager.

Sorry, what? I don't know that the first part means, and the second is standard across almost every system package manager.

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Re:Thoughts on macOS Package Managers by rswail on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @02:37AM (#19785636)

sudo is required if you are installing packages that are going to be usable for multiple users. And given that MacOS has SIP, which locks down /bin /usr etc, sudo is a reasonable idea for a package manager.

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