{"slug": "macports", "name": "MacPorts", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "Open-source package management system for compiling and installing Unix software on macOS.", "recommenders": 9, "commenters": 11, "warners": 1, "score": 7.882, "rising": 4.69, "first": "2025-11-12", "latest": "2026-10-28", "why": "Recommended for continuing to support older macOS versions and Intel Macs that Homebrew has dropped, and for fewer surprise upgrades and breakages than Homebrew.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 11, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 4, 2], "listed": true, "loved": ["Older Mac support", "Stability"], "caveat": "Smaller selection", "short_quote": "Check out MacPorts. It was the original popular package manager for macOS, and it supports Macs going all the way back to Leopard.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.macports.org/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["MacPorts"], "verdict": [{"text": "Recommended for continuing to support older macOS versions and Intel Macs that Homebrew has dropped,", "cites": [{"id": 800212704, "item_id": 50013294, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013294", "by": "vor_", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Check out MacPorts. It was the original popular package manager for macOS, and it supports Macs going all the way back to Leopard.", "excerpt": "Homebrew is rushing to drop support for Intel Macs despite the fact Intel Macs received a major version of macOS from Apple only 12 months ago. Check out MacPorts. It was the original popular package manager for macOS, and it supports Macs going all the way back to Leopard. It has a ton of packages, and the maintainers are very responsive to requests and bug reports in my experience.", "context": "Intel Mac user", "use_case": "package manager on older Macs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zerobrew: A faster alternative to Homebrew"}, {"id": 795043456, "item_id": 49690216, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49690216", "by": "vor_", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It was the original package manager, still going strong, and it supports Macs going all the way back to the Leopard era.", "excerpt": "Check out MacPorts. It was the original package manager, still going strong, and it supports Macs going all the way back to the Leopard era. It also always used /opt instead of taking over /usr/bin like Homebrew.", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on old Macs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 794952816, "item_id": 49684551, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49684551", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "MP is great!", "excerpt": "I switched from Homebrew to MacPorts a few years ago because of Homebrew's aggressive dropping of macOS versions they consider \"too old.\" Even in the top-comment announcement here[1] they are making sure to include that they are removing support, as if they're proud of it! MacPorts generally doesn't care what version of macOS you run, so here I am. I'll probably never go back to Homebrew. MP is great! 1: https://news", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS package management", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 775911952, "item_id": 48494497, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494497", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've moved over to MacPorts due to Homebrew's aggressive support phase-out schedule[1].", "excerpt": "I've moved over to MacPorts due to Homebrew's aggressive support phase-out schedule[1]. My daily driver iMac is now in the Tier-3 \"go away\" bucket. Absolutely loved Homebrew for the short period of time I could use it, but I'm not going to get on the hardware update treadmill just to keep using it. 1: https://docs.brew.sh/Support-Tiers", "context": "iMac daily driver user", "use_case": "macOS package management", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}, {"id": 786256400, "item_id": 49141025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141025", "by": "mediumsmart", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to macports in 2024 and no complaints.", "excerpt": "Still on intel Monterey 2015 mbp and emacs 30 something. Switched to macports in 2024 and no complaints.", "context": "uses a 2015 Intel MacBook Pro", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?"}]}, {"text": " and for fewer surprise upgrades and breakages than Homebrew.", "cites": [{"id": 795032480, "item_id": 49689530, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49689530", "by": "teh64", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all.", "excerpt": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all. In fact, I had more problems with brew, where some package needed to be updated that I did not want, and I caused a cascade of issues. The second has also never happened to me. macports installs the packages into a separate prefix, and you just add that to the path, so I wonder how it could bork irretrievably. Regarding instruction", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 775897746, "item_id": 48493609, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48493609", "by": "0xbadcafebee", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use a combination of Mise and MacPorts now so I don't get any more surprise breakage", "excerpt": "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 more surprise breakage and forced obsolescence. Plus Mise allows me to upgrade to any new version, whereas with Homebrew you have to wait for whenever the tap feels like upgrading (llama.cpp tap skips every 10 releases)", "context": "", "use_case": "package manager", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}, {"id": 804372320, "item_id": 50273270, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50273270", "by": "xmodem", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'd been using it for years before Homebrew even existed and I never felt that any of the problems that Homebrew purported to solve were real.", "excerpt": "Heaps of us. I'd been using it for years before Homebrew even existed and I never felt that any of the problems that Homebrew purported to solve were real.", "context": "Long-time MacPorts user", "use_case": "macOS package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple's git still trusts the compromised eMudhra certificates"}]}, {"text": " Caveats include a smaller package selection without prebuilt binaries for some older systems,", "cites": [{"id": 794941440, "item_id": 49683840, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683840", "by": "asimovDev", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy", "excerpt": "I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy, you copy the package names you installed with brew, uninstall homebrew (there's an unisntall script on brew.sh FAQ section, it will also uninstall all homebrew packages (but not the casks)) then install macports and reinstall the packages with sudo port. Although the selection is smaller on macports and newer packages might not have a prebuilt pkg for your OS so you still ", "context": "older Intel Mac user", "use_case": "package management on older Intel Mac", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}]}, {"text": " and one report of very large dependency installs for small packages.", "cites": [{"id": 775913793, "item_id": 48494612, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494612", "by": "frollogaston", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "MacPorts inexplicably started wanting to install like 9000 packages just to install something small-ish like wget", "excerpt": "I switched to MacPorts because of permission issues with brew, used it for years, then switched back after MacPorts inexplicably started wanting to install like 9000 packages just to install something small-ish like wget. Which is probably just as likely to happen with any other package manager but whatever.", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Older Mac support", "summary": "Supports Macs back to Leopard and macOS versions that Homebrew has dropped.", "quotes": [{"id": 800212704, "item_id": 50013294, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013294", "by": "vor_", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Check out MacPorts. It was the original popular package manager for macOS, and it supports Macs going all the way back to Leopard.", "excerpt": "Homebrew is rushing to drop support for Intel Macs despite the fact Intel Macs received a major version of macOS from Apple only 12 months ago. Check out MacPorts. It was the original popular package manager for macOS, and it supports Macs going all the way back to Leopard. It has a ton of packages, and the maintainers are very responsive to requests and bug reports in my experience.", "context": "Intel Mac user", "use_case": "package manager on older Macs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zerobrew: A faster alternative to Homebrew"}, {"id": 794952816, "item_id": 49684551, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49684551", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "MP is great!", "excerpt": "I switched from Homebrew to MacPorts a few years ago because of Homebrew's aggressive dropping of macOS versions they consider \"too old.\" Even in the top-comment announcement here[1] they are making sure to include that they are removing support, as if they're proud of it! MacPorts generally doesn't care what version of macOS you run, so here I am. I'll probably never go back to Homebrew. MP is great! 1: https://news", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS package management", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 775911952, "item_id": 48494497, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494497", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've moved over to MacPorts due to Homebrew's aggressive support phase-out schedule[1].", "excerpt": "I've moved over to MacPorts due to Homebrew's aggressive support phase-out schedule[1]. My daily driver iMac is now in the Tier-3 \"go away\" bucket. Absolutely loved Homebrew for the short period of time I could use it, but I'm not going to get on the hardware update treadmill just to keep using it. 1: https://docs.brew.sh/Support-Tiers", "context": "iMac daily driver user", "use_case": "macOS package management", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Stability", "summary": "Users switching from Homebrew report fewer forced upgrades and breakages.", "quotes": [{"id": 795032480, "item_id": 49689530, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49689530", "by": "teh64", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all.", "excerpt": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all. In fact, I had more problems with brew, where some package needed to be updated that I did not want, and I caused a cascade of issues. The second has also never happened to me. macports installs the packages into a separate prefix, and you just add that to the path, so I wonder how it could bork irretrievably. Regarding instruction", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 775897746, "item_id": 48493609, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48493609", "by": "0xbadcafebee", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use a combination of Mise and MacPorts now so I don't get any more surprise breakage", "excerpt": "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 more surprise breakage and forced obsolescence. Plus Mise allows me to upgrade to any new version, whereas with Homebrew you have to wait for whenever the tap feels like upgrading (llama.cpp tap skips every 10 releases)", "context": "", "use_case": "package manager", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}, {"id": 786256400, "item_id": 49141025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141025", "by": "mediumsmart", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to macports in 2024 and no complaints.", "excerpt": "Still on intel Monterey 2015 mbp and emacs 30 something. Switched to macports in 2024 and no complaints.", "context": "uses a 2015 Intel MacBook Pro", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?"}]}, {"label": "Separate prefix", "summary": "Installs into its own prefix under /opt instead of taking over system paths.", "quotes": [{"id": 795043456, "item_id": 49690216, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49690216", "by": "vor_", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It was the original package manager, still going strong, and it supports Macs going all the way back to the Leopard era.", "excerpt": "Check out MacPorts. It was the original package manager, still going strong, and it supports Macs going all the way back to the Leopard era. It also always used /opt instead of taking over /usr/bin like Homebrew.", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on old Macs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 795032480, "item_id": 49689530, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49689530", "by": "teh64", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all.", "excerpt": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all. In fact, I had more problems with brew, where some package needed to be updated that I did not want, and I caused a cascade of issues. The second has also never happened to me. macports installs the packages into a separate prefix, and you just add that to the path, so I wonder how it could bork irretrievably. Regarding instruction", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Easy migration", "summary": "Moving from Homebrew is described as easy, often just replacing brew with sudo port.", "quotes": [{"id": 794941440, "item_id": 49683840, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683840", "by": "asimovDev", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy", "excerpt": "I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy, you copy the package names you installed with brew, uninstall homebrew (there's an unisntall script on brew.sh FAQ section, it will also uninstall all homebrew packages (but not the casks)) then install macports and reinstall the packages with sudo port. Although the selection is smaller on macports and newer packages might not have a prebuilt pkg for your OS so you still ", "context": "older Intel Mac user", "use_case": "package management on older Intel Mac", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 795032480, "item_id": 49689530, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49689530", "by": "teh64", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all.", "excerpt": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all. In fact, I had more problems with brew, where some package needed to be updated that I did not want, and I caused a cascade of issues. The second has also never happened to me. macports installs the packages into a separate prefix, and you just add that to the path, so I wonder how it could bork irretrievably. Regarding instruction", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Packages and maintainers", "summary": "Offers many packages, and maintainers are described as responsive to requests and bug reports.", "quotes": [{"id": 800212704, "item_id": 50013294, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013294", "by": "vor_", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Check out MacPorts. It was the original popular package manager for macOS, and it supports Macs going all the way back to Leopard.", "excerpt": "Homebrew is rushing to drop support for Intel Macs despite the fact Intel Macs received a major version of macOS from Apple only 12 months ago. Check out MacPorts. It was the original popular package manager for macOS, and it supports Macs going all the way back to Leopard. It has a ton of packages, and the maintainers are very responsive to requests and bug reports in my experience.", "context": "Intel Mac user", "use_case": "package manager on older Macs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zerobrew: A faster alternative to Homebrew"}, {"id": 791027889, "item_id": 49439243, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439243", "by": "8xeh", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Homebrew or macports has a similar software inventory to debian.", "excerpt": "My Mac mini m1 is a fantastic home server. Years ago I realized running a 100W PC all the time was REALLY expensive, so I switched to an old linux laptop at 30W (about $4/month). That helped, but I moved to the m1 mac specifically for the power efficiency. It does all the things my linux server did, and it does them at 6W (75\u00a2/month). I've found no competitor with similar performance that can run in such a low power ", "context": "runs Mac mini M1 as a home server", "use_case": "package management on Mac home server", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra"}]}, {"label": "Design trust", "summary": "Some prefer it over concerns about Homebrew's past insecure design.", "quotes": [{"id": 751058112, "item_id": 46941132, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46941132", "by": "AnonC", "date": "2026-02-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use MacPorts because of older versions of Homebrew having a weird and insecure design.", "excerpt": "I use MacPorts because of older versions of Homebrew having a weird and insecure design. [1] I think some of those design issues may have been fixed, but I\u2019m wary of Homebrew. [1]: https://saagarjha.com/blog/2019/04/26/thoughts-on-macos-package-managers/", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS package manager", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "More Mac malware from Google search"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Smaller selection", "summary": "Package selection is smaller, and newer packages may lack prebuilt binaries for older macOS, forcing local builds.", "quotes": [{"id": 794941440, "item_id": 49683840, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683840", "by": "asimovDev", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy", "excerpt": "I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy, you copy the package names you installed with brew, uninstall homebrew (there's an unisntall script on brew.sh FAQ section, it will also uninstall all homebrew packages (but not the casks)) then install macports and reinstall the packages with sudo port. Although the selection is smaller on macports and newer packages might not have a prebuilt pkg for your OS so you still ", "context": "older Intel Mac user", "use_case": "package management on older Intel Mac", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}]}, {"label": "Heavy dependencies", "summary": "One user saw it want to install thousands of packages for a small tool like wget.", "quotes": [{"id": 775913793, "item_id": 48494612, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494612", "by": "frollogaston", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "MacPorts inexplicably started wanting to install like 9000 packages just to install something small-ish like wget", "excerpt": "I switched to MacPorts because of permission issues with brew, used it for years, then switched back after MacPorts inexplicably started wanting to install like 9000 packages just to install something small-ish like wget. Which is probably just as likely to happen with any other package manager but whatever.", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}]}], "who": [{"by": "xmodem", "context": "Long-time MacPorts user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50273270", "date": "2026-10-28"}, {"by": "vor_", "context": "Intel Mac user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013294", "date": "2026-10-08"}, {"by": "asimovDev", "context": "older Intel Mac user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683840", "date": "2026-09-13"}, {"by": "8xeh", "context": "runs Mac mini M1 as a home server", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439243", "date": "2026-08-25"}, {"by": "mediumsmart", "context": "uses a 2015 Intel MacBook Pro", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141025", "date": "2026-08-01"}, {"by": "ryandrake", "context": "iMac daily driver user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494497", "date": "2026-06-11"}], "tags": ["for Intel Mac users", "for older macOS versions", "Homebrew alternative", "for Apple Silicon"], "use_cases": ["macos package management", "package management on macos", "package manager on older macs", "package management on old macs", "package management on older intel mac", "package management on mac home server"], "compared": [{"slug": "homebrew", "name": "Homebrew", "co": 16, "switched_from": 8, "switched_to": 5}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49681545", "title": "Homebrew 7.0.0", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48490024", "title": "Homebrew 6.0.0", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50271640", "title": "Apple's git still trusts the compromised eMudhra certificates", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50001580", "title": "Zerobrew: A faster alternative to Homebrew", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49433316", "title": "New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49139703", "title": "Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 4}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804372320, "item_id": 50273270, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50273270", "by": "xmodem", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'd been using it for years before Homebrew even existed and I never felt that any of the problems that Homebrew purported to solve were real.", "excerpt": "Heaps of us. I'd been using it for years before Homebrew even existed and I never felt that any of the problems that Homebrew purported to solve were real.", "context": "Long-time MacPorts user", "use_case": "macOS package management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple's git still trusts the compromised eMudhra certificates"}, {"id": 800212704, "item_id": 50013294, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013294", "by": "vor_", "date": "2026-10-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Check out MacPorts. It was the original popular package manager for macOS, and it supports Macs going all the way back to Leopard.", "excerpt": "Homebrew is rushing to drop support for Intel Macs despite the fact Intel Macs received a major version of macOS from Apple only 12 months ago. Check out MacPorts. It was the original popular package manager for macOS, and it supports Macs going all the way back to Leopard. It has a ton of packages, and the maintainers are very responsive to requests and bug reports in my experience.", "context": "Intel Mac user", "use_case": "package manager on older Macs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zerobrew: A faster alternative to Homebrew"}, {"id": 795043456, "item_id": 49690216, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49690216", "by": "vor_", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It was the original package manager, still going strong, and it supports Macs going all the way back to the Leopard era.", "excerpt": "Check out MacPorts. It was the original package manager, still going strong, and it supports Macs going all the way back to the Leopard era. It also always used /opt instead of taking over /usr/bin like Homebrew.", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on old Macs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 795032480, "item_id": 49689530, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49689530", "by": "teh64", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all.", "excerpt": "I switched from brew to macports, and I have not experienced the first problem at all. In fact, I had more problems with brew, where some package needed to be updated that I did not want, and I caused a cascade of issues. The second has also never happened to me. macports installs the packages into a separate prefix, and you just add that to the path, so I wonder how it could bork irretrievably. Regarding instruction", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 794952816, "item_id": 49684551, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49684551", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "MP is great!", "excerpt": "I switched from Homebrew to MacPorts a few years ago because of Homebrew's aggressive dropping of macOS versions they consider \"too old.\" Even in the top-comment announcement here[1] they are making sure to include that they are removing support, as if they're proud of it! MacPorts generally doesn't care what version of macOS you run, so here I am. I'll probably never go back to Homebrew. MP is great! 1: https://news", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS package management", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 794941440, "item_id": 49683840, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683840", "by": "asimovDev", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy", "excerpt": "I recommend MacPorts, the migration is easy, you copy the package names you installed with brew, uninstall homebrew (there's an unisntall script on brew.sh FAQ section, it will also uninstall all homebrew packages (but not the casks)) then install macports and reinstall the packages with sudo port. Although the selection is smaller on macports and newer packages might not have a prebuilt pkg for your OS so you still ", "context": "older Intel Mac user", "use_case": "package management on older Intel Mac", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 7.0.0"}, {"id": 791027889, "item_id": 49439243, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439243", "by": "8xeh", "date": "2026-08-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Homebrew or macports has a similar software inventory to debian.", "excerpt": "My Mac mini m1 is a fantastic home server. Years ago I realized running a 100W PC all the time was REALLY expensive, so I switched to an old linux laptop at 30W (about $4/month). That helped, but I moved to the m1 mac specifically for the power efficiency. It does all the things my linux server did, and it does them at 6W (75\u00a2/month). I've found no competitor with similar performance that can run in such a low power ", "context": "runs Mac mini M1 as a home server", "use_case": "package management on Mac home server", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra"}, {"id": 786256400, "item_id": 49141025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141025", "by": "mediumsmart", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to macports in 2024 and no complaints.", "excerpt": "Still on intel Monterey 2015 mbp and emacs 30 something. Switched to macports in 2024 and no complaints.", "context": "uses a 2015 Intel MacBook Pro", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Anyone still do work on Intel Macs?"}, {"id": 775913793, "item_id": 48494612, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494612", "by": "frollogaston", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "MacPorts inexplicably started wanting to install like 9000 packages just to install something small-ish like wget", "excerpt": "I switched to MacPorts because of permission issues with brew, used it for years, then switched back after MacPorts inexplicably started wanting to install like 9000 packages just to install something small-ish like wget. Which is probably just as likely to happen with any other package manager but whatever.", "context": "", "use_case": "package management on macOS", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}, {"id": 775911952, "item_id": 48494497, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494497", "by": "ryandrake", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've moved over to MacPorts due to Homebrew's aggressive support phase-out schedule[1].", "excerpt": "I've moved over to MacPorts due to Homebrew's aggressive support phase-out schedule[1]. My daily driver iMac is now in the Tier-3 \"go away\" bucket. Absolutely loved Homebrew for the short period of time I could use it, but I'm not going to get on the hardware update treadmill just to keep using it. 1: https://docs.brew.sh/Support-Tiers", "context": "iMac daily driver user", "use_case": "macOS package management", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}, {"id": 775897746, "item_id": 48493609, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48493609", "by": "0xbadcafebee", "date": "2026-06-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use a combination of Mise and MacPorts now so I don't get any more surprise breakage", "excerpt": "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 more surprise breakage and forced obsolescence. Plus Mise allows me to upgrade to any new version, whereas with Homebrew you have to wait for whenever the tap feels like upgrading (llama.cpp tap skips every 10 releases)", "context": "", "use_case": "package manager", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew 6.0.0"}, {"id": 751058112, "item_id": 46941132, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46941132", "by": "AnonC", "date": "2026-02-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use MacPorts because of older versions of Homebrew having a weird and insecure design.", "excerpt": "I use MacPorts because of older versions of Homebrew having a weird and insecure design. [1] I think some of those design issues may have been fixed, but I\u2019m wary of Homebrew. [1]: https://saagarjha.com/blog/2019/04/26/thoughts-on-macos-package-managers/", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS package manager", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "More Mac malware from Google search"}, {"id": 734524064, "item_id": 45907754, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907754", "by": "skygazer", "date": "2025-11-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use arm64 macports instead of homebrew", "excerpt": "Hmm. I use arm64 macports instead of homebrew, and as far as I know, I download prebuilt binaries from macports without issue even on Tahoe -- are they signing them with an approved account? Or did they force me to build everything from scratch, like the old days, and I haven't noticed?", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS package management", "switched_from": "Homebrew", "story": "Homebrew no longer allows bypassing Gatekeeper for unsigned/unnotarized software"}]}