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politelemonlast Sunday at 9:13 PM8 repliesview on HN

Please don't use or suggest using homebrew as a Linux installation solution. It's better to simply point at the binaries directly.


Replies

OptionOfTlast Sunday at 11:15 PM

Why?

Is it the best out there? No. But it does work, and it provides me with updates for my tools.

Random curl scripts don't auto-update.

Me downloading executables and dropping them in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin or wherever I'm supposed to drop them [0] also isn't secure.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487921

Also, I find it is usually better to follow up with something like:

'It's better to use Y instead of X BECAUSE of reasons O, P, Q, R & S' vs making a blanket statement like 'Don't use X, use this other insecure solution instead', as that way I get to learn something too.

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rswaillast Monday at 6:02 AM

Also don't use Homebrew on MacOS because it screws around in /usr/local and still hasn't worked out how root is supposed to work.

Use Macports, it's tidy, installs into /opt/macports, works with Apple's frameworks and language configuration (for python, java etc), builds from upstream sources + patches, has variants to add/remove features, supports "port select" to have multiple versions installed in parallel.

Just a better solution all around.

yarektlast Sunday at 10:29 PM

Nice, download a random binary off the internet and give it your AWS credentials.

Please people, inspect the source to your tools, or don't use them on production accounts.

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colesantiagolast Sunday at 9:31 PM

What's the problem with Homebrew?

> It's better to simply point at the binaries directly.

Binaries aren't at all signed and can be malicious and do dangerous things.

Especially if it's using curl | bash to install binaries.

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frenzcanlast Sunday at 9:28 PM

What’s the issue with homebrew?

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jbreckmckyelast Sunday at 9:20 PM

What's wrong with Brew?

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danguslast Sunday at 11:30 PM

As a user of immutable Linux (bazzite), I suggest speaking for yourself and not for others.

On my platform, Homebrew is a preferred method for installing CLI tools. I also personally happen to like it better on Linux than Mac (it seems faster/better).

https://docs.bazzite.gg/Installing_and_Managing_Software/

purerandomnesslast Sunday at 11:33 PM

brew is for users of non-Arch distros who want to experience what using Arch feels like.