Macports vs. Fink vs. Homebrew?

Hi, my experience comes from 10 years or so using FreeBSD Ports on a daily basis. I've looked thoroughly at MacPorts (DarwinPorts), Homebrew and Fink.

I have always stayed with MacPorts as the primary ports system I use on my Mac. I have a lot of problems with the Fink architecture that I don't really want to get into but I have been a little baffled at the hubris with which Hombrew presents itself. I think there are some cool things about Homebrew that MacPorts would do well to borrow from, including:

• Some interesting details in the installation docs about running more than one ports system safely (even though they advise against it),
• Good tips on running your installed ports out of /usr/local if you want to do that,
• Good tips on running your ports system without having to always use sudo (I despise sudo),
• There's something to be said for their use of "formulas" all contained within one directory

And, Homebrew bedazzles people with Ruby aesthetics that are all the rage these days.

That said, I think MacPorts' position on using /opt/local (with symlinks, if you like, in /usr/local) is the "right" way to compartmentalize the ports system. And, I prefer the similarities to fbsd ports. MacPorts definitely wins out in the breadth and scope of available ports.

Still, I am currently running MacPorts in /opt/local and Hombrew out of my user's home directory (it installs symlinks into /usr/local). They are issues with this that you need to watch out for but I prefer choices 🙂

In theory, you could use all of them. You don't need to use any.

What are you hoping to achieve with them? They can be powerful tools or really screw up your system, depending on how you approach them.