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Comment by jd3 | Hacker News Reader

Great list, not a big fan of homebrew personally, or its creator who seems to be full of himself. I'd recommend pkg_src from joyent[0]. homebrew seems to have a lot of the hip webdev packages, but pkg_src and joyent's repository is the real deal when it comes to hardcore UNIX package management. Some friends have a nice bootstrap for pkg_src on OS X called saveosx[1], too.

[0]: https://pkgsrc.joyent.com/install-on-osx/

[1]: http://www.saveosx.org/

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This seems to be somewhat ad hominem. Shouldn't software be judged by its own merits as opposed to those of its creator? (even if this is a big deal to you, Homebrew's creator seems to be not nearly as involved as he was initially).

I must disagree with your assessment that Homebrew is focused primarily on webdev. There is rarely any package (webdev-related or not) that I haven't been able to install with it. I'd venture to say that not once over the past 12 months have I had a single problem installing anything.

I'm also curious what pkg_src offers over Homebrew (and vice versa).

FWIW, I have no issues with homebrew, but I have used macports for many years and never had any issue. Especially now that it supports binary packages, I find it perfect for my usage.

I had tons of issues with macports over the years (e.g., emacs port was broken for months after 10.6 came out), but I think that was mostly a function of its smaller userbase and more difficult contribution system. Homebrew seems to have many more users and a far simpler way to contribute, so it's rare that I encounter a broken or old package.

Homebrew's creator hasn't been involved with Homebrew for nearly two years now.

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