# Homebrew 271 Hacker News commenters recommended Homebrew and 175 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (13 owners). **Verdict:** A package manager for macOS and Linux with a huge catalog, one-line installs and handy casks for Mac apps; critics cite weak supply-chain security and dropped older macOS support. ## Why people recommend it - Works well on Linux too (8 comments): "Brew actually works very nicely for Linux and is a useful method to enable package management of cli tools/libraries at the user level." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46493304)) "brew is a decent compromise between "breaking debian" and running newer stuff and newer versions of things for desktop use at least." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45963474)) "It's for predictability in upgrades. Homebrew allows you to separate system packages (from apt or dnf) from user packages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48502836)) - Huge catalog of current software (4 comments): "Homebrew provides access to a massive catalog of software, including many tools that are not packaged for Fedora, Debian, or Ubuntu." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494537)) "Most will at least want something like https://brew.sh/ to get you current versions of standard Linux utilities" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47252404)) "It's already packaged for both Alpine Linux and Homebrew which suits my ad-hoc needs wonderfully!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45800495)) - Easy one-line installs (3 comments): "I think of homebrew as a curation service; it lets me name a piece of software and install it without having to any special diligence on it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907894)) "anything you can install via Homebrew is a single line to install without additional restrictions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48115872)) "I feel homebrew really is a nice interface which is pretty close to conventional package manager" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48497690)) - Casks for macOS GUI apps (2 comments): "Casks are the only things Homebrew does that some other package manager available on macOS doesn't reliably do better." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907988)) "For macOS UI programs and those that need specific permissions and for commercial programs stick with Homebrew" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45979378)) ## What people warn about - Weak supply-chain security (5 comments): "opting for a safer install mechanism makes a huge difference, which is we always ought to prefer apt, dnf, over the likes of curlbash, brew, npm" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46909659)) "Brew is not anywhere close to a level of supply chain security to be allowed anywhere near production access or production code review." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49686876)) "Neither WinGet nor Homebrew packages/formulae provide authenticity checks. They have integrity checks for file transfer. That's it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47019034)) - Drops support for older macOS (3 comments): "the pride in aggressively dropping support for Macs that just received a major OS release from Apple only 12 months ago" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49690141)) "Homebrew's insistence on leaving OSes behind that they deem to be "too old" is becoming a problem as the years click by" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45911618)) "Then brew stops supporting it and you have to install some finicky 3rd party taps/repos to get the older versions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45911963)) - Leaves messy files around (2 comments): "Homebrew links everything by default (at least that's how it was), so you ended up with all kind of extra junk files all over the place" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50003049)) "wiping my entire Mac every few years partially to reset whatever mess of Homebrew + MacPorts + Python was lying around" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48510653)) - Slow or janky upgrades (2 comments): "It's a bit janky around upgrades in my experience, but you're going to have to clarify what you mean." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46942309)) "Brew is notably slow compared to the other package managers I use, but never in an unbearable way." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49684458)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Nix](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nix.md): 378 recommend - [npm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/npm.md): 161 recommend - [pnpm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pnpm.md): 124 recommend - [Cargo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cargo.md): 123 recommend - [GNU Guix](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gnu-guix.md): 84 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Homebrew", https://hackerapproved.com/p/homebrew/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).