macOS IS NOT Linux ‼️
While 25'ish years ago Mac OS X was loosely based on Carnegie Mellon's MACH micro-kernel and FreeBSD's kernel APIs, commands and utilities, it has evolved a lot since then.
It has. never had a Linux style package manager, as Apple focuses on the GUI interface. The Unix side of macOS (Darwin) is not a bad Unix as long as you do not expect to drop any old Unix/Linux bases source code into macOS compile and run it without any issues.
With rare exceptions, none of the Apple macOS apps are available for individual downloads. Safari being an exception in that the WebKit versions, which are Apple experiments with future Safari versions can be downloaded and installed separately. The macOS Command Line Tools are available via the xcode-select command run in a terminal emulator. But that is about it.
Some other Apple software, such as Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Xcode, etc... are available via the macOS App Store.
As far as I know, there have been three 3rd party packages managers for open source software.
- fink (the first)
- MacPorts (the second)
- Homebrew (the third and currently most popular)
These package managers DO NOT deal with Apple provided software, just open source software. Some command line based, and some GUI based. And some of the GUI based also require XQuartz X11 Display Server for GUI support.
And of course if the open source software does have a macOS port, or you can get it from GitHub, you can compile and install it yourself. Many open source packages that have a Mac port often also have a .dmg or .zip file you can download and drag the resulting app to the Applications folder.
Commercial 3rd party software vendors use a mixed of distribution methods, very few of which are command line based. Some distribute via the macOS App Store. Some offer downloads from their web sites, with a GUI based installer. Some offer a .dmg file download, and you drag and drop the app into the Applications folder.
As a Unix/Linux cross platform file system developer, I spend most of my time in a Unix or Linux environment, using iTerm2, ssh, tmux and Vim working with hosted development systems in my company's data centers. I am very familiar with using the Unix side of macOS, and it is definitely NOT Linux. There are a lot of similarities because both have the original Bell Labs UNIX philosophy, but there are tons of differences, and you cannot assume you are going to see Linux elements on a macOS system.
Keep in mind that Apple is focused on creating a GUI based operating system for Mom, Dad and Aunt Susie. While macOS does have a Unix style command line environment, it is not a priority for Apple. In fact Apple is PROHIBITED from including any Unix/Linux commands, utilities, apps that use the GPLv3 license. Many of the Linux commands you are used to have GPLv3 licenses. You can thank Richard Stallman for that.
If you really want Linux, then install a virtual machine and run Linux on your Mac, or get an inexpensive intel PC and run Linux on that. You can VNC or RDC to the Linux box for access from your Mac. There are also some versions of Linux that will boot a Mac if you want to repurpose your Mac hardware as a Linux system.