I found that Mise handles all my needs for development and it is scoped so it doesn't try to update Python and break all my virtual env when I install something new /shrug
Today, I’m proud to announce Homebrew 7.0.0. The most significant changes since 6.0.0 are faster installations and upgrades, stronger sandboxing, a native macOS app, built-in vulnerability checks and an advisory database, the end of macOS 10.15 support and Intel Macs moving to Tier 3 (announced last year).
Literally just upgraded before seeing this post; I had 31 outdated packages and the first thing I saw was how blazing fast it was! I looked online to see if something changed and saw this post.
Speed was my biggest complaint about brew, so I'm glad to cross that one off my list of things I don't like about brew.
Thank you for your hard work BTW, brew's been a lifesaver on macOS and immutable distros.
Just remember that brew still must never be installed on a machine you need to be able to trust.
The supply chain security policy of brew is basically non existent and optimized for low-friction contributions. Think wikipedia. No enforced commit signing, review signing, or multi-party release signing, and thus everything is honor system.
Do not put brew anywhere near systems that access production or even on systems used to review production-bound code.
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.
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.
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.
See the release notes: we now have experimental support for using any prefix shorter than the Linux default. We are aiming to eventually fully support (Tier 1) any prefix under 64 bytes long.
The dedicated user isn't really required; it just expects that /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew exists. That can just be a symlink to your home directory. But yes, creating that symlink requires root on most systems. Brew itself doesn't require root or that pathname; you can put packages anywhere, but then many will have to be built from scratch since the pre-built packages don't work. And you need bubblewrap installed (which requires root) to use the sandbox, but again that is optional.
All that said, when you are running without a sandbox installing to a nonstandard location, not everything works consistently. I run this mode all the time. But it has been getting better.
> The Intel support decision reflects the limits of a volunteer-run project: Apple have dropped Intel x86_64 support from macOS 27 Golden Gate and GitHub Actions will retire Intel macOS runners in autumn 2027. If Apple and Microsoft’s GitHub, two of the world’s largest technology companies, cannot continue supporting macOS Intel x86_64, sadly neither can Homebrew. MacPorts still supports macOS Intel x86_64 and is likely to provide better results on this platform.
I found that Mise handles all my needs for development and it is scoped so it doesn't try to update Python and break all my virtual env when I install something new /shrug
Today, I’m proud to announce Homebrew 7.0.0. The most significant changes since 6.0.0 are faster installations and upgrades, stronger sandboxing, a native macOS app, built-in vulnerability checks and an advisory database, the end of macOS 10.15 support and Intel Macs moving to Tier 3 (announced last year).
Thank you for Linux Homebrew! It works so damn well.
For me the distro package manager is for system packages, Homebrew and Flatpak for the user facing apps.
Literally just upgraded before seeing this post; I had 31 outdated packages and the first thing I saw was how blazing fast it was! I looked online to see if something changed and saw this post.
Speed was my biggest complaint about brew, so I'm glad to cross that one off my list of things I don't like about brew.
Thank you for your hard work BTW, brew's been a lifesaver on macOS and immutable distros.
Glad to hear it. A lot of time and energy has gone into performance work so glad that’s noticeable! Thanks for the kid words too <3
I don't know what I would do without brew on my Macs. Thank you and everyone who contributes!
I think at one point you said you’re working on a rust rewrite? Is that still in the cards?
I tried it. It ended up being slower on most non-synthetic benchmarks (like repeatedly installing the same thing with warm caches).
The lessons learned were instead used to make the Ruby frontend much faster.
They experimented with it but ultimately decided to focus on perf with their existing ruby codebase.
https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/issues/7755#issuecomment-51...
https://fishshell.com/blog/rustport/
Fish 4.0: The Fish of Theseus (fishshell.com)
906 points by jdxcode on Dec 28, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 198 comments
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42535217
Just remember that brew still must never be installed on a machine you need to be able to trust.
The supply chain security policy of brew is basically non existent and optimized for low-friction contributions. Think wikipedia. No enforced commit signing, review signing, or multi-party release signing, and thus everything is honor system.
Do not put brew anywhere near systems that access production or even on systems used to review production-bound code.
https://docs.brew.sh/Homebrew-Security-and-Supply-Chain
We take supply chain security very seriously, moreso than many package managers.
the gui homebrew manager is a nice addition!
it can be installed with:
brew install homebrew-app
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 !
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
FYI Macos will also stop with major updates for Intel macs. You can just keep using brew 6 on macos 26.
Sry but if I had a an intel macbook I would I stall an is that doesn't suck, like Linux for example.
Have you tried Mac Ports?
Time to `brew update && brew upgrade` later today. Always a little nervous, but Homebrew usually makes it painless.
I have this bound to an alias: bu
Run it every couple of days, easy peasy.
Does installation still require root and a dedicated user account on Linux?
That really put me off.
See the release notes: we now have experimental support for using any prefix shorter than the Linux default. We are aiming to eventually fully support (Tier 1) any prefix under 64 bytes long.
The dedicated user isn't really required; it just expects that /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew exists. That can just be a symlink to your home directory. But yes, creating that symlink requires root on most systems. Brew itself doesn't require root or that pathname; you can put packages anywhere, but then many will have to be built from scratch since the pre-built packages don't work. And you need bubblewrap installed (which requires root) to use the sandbox, but again that is optional.
All that said, when you are running without a sandbox installing to a nonstandard location, not everything works consistently. I run this mode all the time. But it has been getting better.
Bubblewrap is history starting with 7.0.0 according to the release notes
The dedicated user account is optional.
It uses root once to chown its prefix directory /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew
Awesome, I just checked and had already upgraded at some point. I run the alias command below every now and then which keeps everything up to date.
Fantastic, thx for the effort!
Thank you so much for doing this, for years you make me feel like home, or the year 2010. Please don't ever stop!
Farewell, Homebrew. It's been a good run.
- 2019 Intel iMac user.
Sorry we couldn’t support this for longer :(
From the release notes:
> The Intel support decision reflects the limits of a volunteer-run project: Apple have dropped Intel x86_64 support from macOS 27 Golden Gate and GitHub Actions will retire Intel macOS runners in autumn 2027. If Apple and Microsoft’s GitHub, two of the world’s largest technology companies, cannot continue supporting macOS Intel x86_64, sadly neither can Homebrew. MacPorts still supports macOS Intel x86_64 and is likely to provide better results on this platform.