That's what I want.

I build web apps for a living, and I used to do it by contracting. I don't have time, patience or interest for fiddly configuration. I want a mostly-good initial experience so I can get on with my work rather than mess about with my tools. I'm aware there's some gain to be had by knowing more about my tools, but the payoff isn't obvious enough to make me change my ways.

Thanks for being mostly-great, brew.

Exactly, it’s the same reason I use Mac instead of Linux. I want to make things. I don’t want to waste time fiddling with endless verbose details I don’t need to know

Yours, A Noob

Not for developers, no. "Normal" Apple consumers have little reason to use brew.

I think that's a false dichotomy. I think there are plenty of "normal" Apple consumers who may not be an HN-level hacker but would still be considered "developers".

What is a "HN-level hacker"? I write code for a living and I read news on this website. Do I count?

I'm an apple "consumer" because I don't want to think about any hardware gotchas when I'm trying to do my job. That's the same thing I want out of my package manager, sensible defaults I don't have to think about so I can do real work instead.

Homebrew has clear value even if you aren't a developer. It's the best way to install a whole lot of software, not just dev tools.

I'm not a developer and I have plenty of reasons to use homebrew.