alt Hacker NewsI don't agree with everything that Homebrew does, but the primary maintainers are visible, vocal and very opinionated. They have shown credibility and earnt my trust over the years given it is a crucial entry point to potential malware to my system.
Homebrew has continued to improve performance each major version. It's certainly a lot quicker nowadays than 5 years ago. I want reliability and safety in a package manager, speed is nice to have.
I applaud competition, but something like this starts with trust zero as far as I'm concerned. If there is one place that I want human input over LLM it's here. It needs to scream: smart humans are in control and overseeing the project. I don't see that here.
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100% agree on your comment. For a package manager, speed is aspiration but security and reliability are basic requirements. And the credibility is a big plus. Today anyone can build a package manager in a week with AI, but once the system grows, how is the team going to manage? This is where credibility matters.
> If there is one place that I want human input over LLM it's here. It needs to scream: smart humans are in control and overseeing the project. I don't see that here.
How is Homebrew fundamentally different (as of today) - they vibe code. For example, the new app BrewUI is vibe coded, Claude is #2 contributor.
Does this scream "smart humans"?
The biggest challenge with all these new packages coming up is support for edge cases and maintainability over the years.
AI may make it easy to clone or port something to a new language but it will later need a dedicated human to put in a shift and fine tune it.
So unless you are ready to keep jumping to the newest, it's better to stay with the trusted for now.
Smart humans?
Is it smart to deprecate everything the minute Apple sunsets their OS version?
This is not a smart package manager, its a manager for the “dumb” masses, that need to be saved and protected from themselves by forcing them into the next walled garden, so to speak…
Maybe Homebrew is reliable, but do not assume it is safe. It has always operated on the honor system for contributions and code review. Every maintainer is able to merge anything they want without review or signatures. No matter how good their intentions, Homebrew is a massive supply chain attack waiting to happen.