Homebrew — the MacOS and Linux Package Manager That Will Make You Smile
It’s free and it’s easy.
MacOS has an app store, but does that contain all the software you need? No. Especially when you’re an advanced user, like a developer or a scientist, you’ll find that MacOS lacks a good package manager. You want something like yum, or apt-get. Something with which you can install anything with a single command. No downloading and extracting. No manual compiling. That’s where Homebrew comes in!
What is Homebrew?
Homebrew is the missing package manager for macOS. That’s their slogan… and it’s so true. Homebrew allows you to install the stuff that Apple doesn’t offer you. Have you ever needed the latest version of Python, xz, wget, tmux, FFmpeg, untar, <insert any piece of software here> on your Mac?
The list of packages offered is almost endless, go see for yourself (alphabetically sorted). Or check out this list ordered by the number of installs.
And these are just the command line tools and libraries, also called “formulae”. But there are also “Casks”. With a cask, you can easily install GUI software from the command line. No more “drag to install”. Here’s the list of casks that are available today.
