Homebrew 6.0.0
Dev tools
package manager
SHOW HN2026
1,481points
363comments
#4of 4,366 in 2026
Top 1%of 2026 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
61 positive, 60 neutral or asking, 5 mixed, 29 critical, out of 155 comments about the project. Thread score +0.20.
Idea: 9 for, 3 againstExecution: 3 for, 9 againstDesign: 3 for, 4 againstPerformance: 4 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 1 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Long-running, reliable daily tool for many users
From 3 comments
As a daily user of Homebrew for > 10 years, thanks for all your hard work.
drgo on HNHomebrew is so good that I use it on Linux whenever possible. Most Linux package managers cannot separate user-installed packages from system packages. This makes cleaning up…
maxloh on HNI recently switched back to Homebrew from Nix, and the three big factors in that switch are: - Brew seems to have better support for the packages it has, compared to Nix where it…
klodolph on HN
Thanks to maintainers for their work
From 2 comments
Thanks for all the hard work. We are not many [1], but Homebrew has been a great way to quickly bootstrap an environment in immutable Linux distributions. Note that certain…
vitorsr on HNThanks
academicfish on HN
Objections
Forced upgrades and breakage when upgrading single packages
From 3 comments
Personally I stopped using Homebrew after I got screwed too many times on mandatory upgrades that I couldn't pin. I use a combination of Mise and MacPorts now so I don't get any…
0xbadcafebee on HNI love using Homebrew but I wish there was more support for pinning. I recently setup a new remote VM and tried to use a Brewfile for my setup. Turns out I cannot pin Neovim and…
whinvik on HNDoes homebrew still do that insane thing when you want to upgrade a single package it tell you "hold my beer" and starts installing postgres and some obscure python version?
phplovesong on HN
Dropping Intel macOS support too early
From 1 comment
The deprecation of Intel support is agressive! Every Mac enthusiast I know who uses a Mac as a server uses their old machines, which are pretty much all Intel. We'll lose support…
philistine on HN
No cooldown mechanism for new versions
From 1 comment
Thanks for the update. Is there any chance we can get some kind of cooldown mechanism in Homebrew? The only people I want to trust to quickly ship new code to my machine are…
broxit on HN
Parallel downloads can overwhelm networks
From 1 comment
Well, I might as well ask my tech support question here :) I just ran the upgrade to 6.0.0, and it downloaded so many things concurrently that it killed my wifi (old router). Is…
12_throw_away on HN
Requests
Version pinning support
From 2 comments
I love using Homebrew but I wish there was more support for pinning. I recently setup a new remote VM and tried to use a Brewfile for my setup. Turns out I cannot pin Neovim and…
whinvik on HNPersonally I stopped using Homebrew after I got screwed too many times on mandatory upgrades that I couldn't pin. I use a combination of Mise and MacPorts now so I don't get any…
0xbadcafebee on HN
Cooldown mechanism for updates
From 1 comment
Thanks for the update. Is there any chance we can get some kind of cooldown mechanism in Homebrew? The only people I want to trust to quickly ship new code to my machine are…
broxit on HN
Bandwidth or concurrency limits for downloads
From 1 comment
Well, I might as well ask my tech support question here :) I just ran the upgrade to 6.0.0, and it downloaded so many things concurrently that it killed my wifi (old router). Is…
12_throw_away on HN
Questions
How to get the new features on existing installs
From 1 comment
For those of us who use homebrew today, how do we get the new cool benefits ? Is there a command to upgrade (like ```brew upgrade```) everything to the new hotness, do we need to…
golem14 on HN
How it compares to Linux package managers like apt and dnf
From 1 comment
I know this runs on Linux too. As a Linux user, I'm unclear on why I might use this instead of apt or dnf, for example. Any Linux users out there have experience with both…
jamesgill on HN
How it compares to Zerobrew for speed
From 1 comment
Thank you for your work on Homebrew, I use it every day. On the matter of speed and parallel downloads, how does this release compare to Zerobrew [0]? On another note, to…
satvikpendem on HN
Alternatives named
Mise
From 2 comments
I have switched my full OS-level dev env to https://mise.jdx.dev/ from Homebrew+pipx+npm, initially as an experiment but found out that it actually works amazingly well. Many…
PufPufPuf on HNPersonally I stopped using Homebrew after I got screwed too many times on mandatory upgrades that I couldn't pin. I use a combination of Mise and MacPorts now so I don't get any…
0xbadcafebee on HN
MacPorts
From 2 comments
Personally I stopped using Homebrew after I got screwed too many times on mandatory upgrades that I couldn't pin. I use a combination of Mise and MacPorts now so I don't get any…
0xbadcafebee on HNSorry, we don’t have the resources to do so. We are a team of volunteers and rely on donations to pay for our CI infrastructure. MacPorts is a better fit for older hardware.
mikemcquaid on HN
Nix
From 2 comments
I recently switched back to Homebrew from Nix, and the three big factors in that switch are: - Brew seems to have better support for the packages it has, compared to Nix where it…
klodolph on HNHow do you square advocating for the "Open Source Resistance" which touts "stop asking for permission" to do software and then saying "we need everything on MacOS to be signed…
terminalbraid on HN
Zerobrew
From 1 comment
Thank you for your work on Homebrew, I use it every day. On the matter of speed and parallel downloads, how does this release compare to Zerobrew [0]? On another note, to…
satvikpendem on HN