Hacker News Reader

On my macOS work machine, Nix has replaced Homebrew. The ability to switch between generations of your system state [1] when a new install goes awry is underrated, IMO.

[1] https://nixos.org/nix/manual/#sec-profiles

View on HN

I really think the biggest roadblock is the command line interface[1]. To replace Homebrew you only need like 3 or 4 commands. Right now, that means 3 or 4 different nix commands with weird arguments. The way Nix is currently set up is great and make sense for the OS, but Homebrew has a much simpler use-case (single-user, all user land packages, very low barrier to entry). I can't wait until that ticket is addressed.

[1] https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/779

Why not both? Does Homebrew conflict with Nix in such a way that only one is possible at a time?

I can definitely see giving Nix priority for work-related development, but I would like to know if Homebrew can still fill in as a backup option.

I've installed both without issue. It might be a headache long-term because of libs and installing things in both systems, etc. Just make sure you know which comes first in PATH.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com