nixpkgs VS HomeBrew

Compare nixpkgs vs HomeBrew and see what are their differences.

HomeBrew

🍺 The missing package manager for macOS (or Linux) (by Homebrew)
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nixpkgs HomeBrew
972 1,281
15,581 39,303
4.9% 1.5%
10.0 10.0
6 days ago 5 days ago
Nix Ruby
MIT License BSD 2-clause "Simplified" License
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

nixpkgs

Posts with mentions or reviews of nixpkgs. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-22.
  • Eelco Dolstra's leadership is corrosive to the Nix project
    6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 22 Apr 2024
    I see two signers in the top 6 displayed on https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/graphs/contributors
  • 3rd Edition of Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ by Stroustrup
    6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 19 Apr 2024
    For a single file script, nix can make the package management quite easy: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/doc/languages-f...

    For example,

    ```

  • NixOS/nixpkgs: There isn't a clear canonical way to refer to a specific package
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 9 Apr 2024
  • NixOS Is Not Reproducible
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 7 Apr 2024
    Yes, Nix doesn't actually ensure that the builds are deterministic. In fact it works just fine if they aren't. There are packages in nixpkgs that aren't reproducible: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aiss...
  • The xz attack shell script
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 2 Apr 2024
    I'm not familiar with Bazel, but Nix in it's current form wouldn't have solved this attack. First of all, the standard mkDerivation function calls the same configure; make; make install process that made this attack possible. Nixpkgs regularly pulls in external resources (fetchUrl and friends) that are equally vulnerable to a poisoned release tarball. Checkout the comment on the current xz entry in nixpkgs https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/tools/comp...
  • Debian Git Monorepo
    4 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 2 Apr 2024
    NixOS uses a monorepo and I think everyone's love it.

    I love being able to easily grep through all the packages source code and there's regularly PRs that harmonizes conventions across many packages.

    Nixpkgs doesn't include the packaged software source code, so it's a lot more practical than what Debian is doing.

    https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs

  • From xz to ibus: more questionable tarballs
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Apr 2024
    In this specific case, nix uses fetchFromGitHub to download the source archive, which are generated by GitHub for the specified revision[1]. Arch seems to just download the tarball from the releases page[2].

    [1]: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/3c2fdd0a4e6396fc310a6e...

    [2]: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/ib...

  • GitHub Disabled the Xz Repo
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 29 Mar 2024
    True, but irrelevant -- _some packages_, _somewhere_, do depend on xz, which, if built, requires pulling the source from GitHub (see the default.nix: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-23.11/pkgs/tools...)

    It's not the vulnerability that's a problem right now (NixOS was protected by a couple of factors) but rather GitHub's hamfisted response.

    That is the problem.

  • Combining Nix with Terraform for better DevOps
    4 projects | dev.to | 19 Mar 2024
    We’ve noticed that some users have been asking about how to use older versions of Terraform in their Nix setups [1, 2]. This is an example of the diverse needs of people and the importance of maintaining backward compatibility. We hope that nixpkgs-terraform will be a useful tool for these users.
  • Nix is a better Docker image builder than Docker's image builder
    21 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 15 Mar 2024
    I think whateveracct was referring to is this link:

    https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/developmen...

    What that file is doing, is building a package, and it essentially is a combination of what Makefile and what RPM spec file does.

    I don't know if you're familiar with those tools, but if you aren't it takes some time to know them enough to understand what is happening. So why would be different here?

HomeBrew

Posts with mentions or reviews of HomeBrew. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-08.
  • Top Homebrew Alternative: ServBay Becomes the Go-To for Developers
    1 project | dev.to | 18 Apr 2024
    Homebrew is a highly popular package manager on macOS and Linux systems, enabling users to easily install, update, and uninstall command-line tools and applications. Its design philosophy focuses on simplifying the software installation process on macOS, eliminating the need for manual downloads and compilations of software packages.
  • Software Engineering Workflow
    6 projects | dev.to | 8 Apr 2024
    Homebrew - package manager for linux-based OSs.
  • Simulate your first Lightning transaction on the Bitcoin regtest network Part 1 (MacOS)
    3 projects | dev.to | 30 Mar 2024
    Package Manager: Homebrew
  • Tools for Linux Distro Hoppers
    7 projects | dev.to | 27 Mar 2024
    Hopping from one distro to another with a different package manager might require some time to adapt. Using a package manager that can be installed on most distro is one way to help you get to work faster. Flatpak is one of them; other alternative are Snap, Nix or Homebrew. Flatpak is a good starter, and if you have a bunch of free time, I suggest trying Nix.
  • SQLite Schema Diagram Generator
    13 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 23 Mar 2024
    Are you using SQLite that ships with macOS, or SQLite installed from homebrew?

    I had a different problem in the past with the SQLite that ships with macOS, and have been using SQLite from homebrew since.

    So if it’s the one that comes with macOS that gives you this problem that you are having, try using SQLite from homebrew instead.

    https://brew.sh/

  • How to install (Ubuntu 22.10 VM) vagrant on Mac M1 ship using QEMU
    1 project | dev.to | 21 Mar 2024
    Before we begin, make sure you have Homebrew installed on your Mac. Homebrew is a package manager that makes it easy to install software and dependencies. You can install Homebrew by following the instructions on their website: https://brew.sh/
  • Perfect Elixir: Environment Setup
    3 projects | dev.to | 18 Mar 2024
    I’m on MacOS and erlang.org, elixir-lang.org, and postgresql.org all suggest installation via Homebrew, which is a very popular package manager for MacOS.
  • You're Installing Node.js Wrong. That's OK, Here Is How To Fix It 🙌
    2 projects | dev.to | 14 Mar 2024
    I have always either installed Node from the installer provided by the Nodejs website or, via Brew in macOS. I have also used nvm in the past but did not know that there was a best practice to guide us.
  • Test Driving a Rails API - Part One
    11 projects | dev.to | 11 Mar 2024
    A running Rails application needs a database to connect to. You may already have your database of choice installed, but if not, I recommend PostgreSQL, or Postgres for short. On a Mac, probably the easiest way to install it is with Posrgres.app. Another option, the one I prefer, is to use Homebrew. With Homebrew installed, this command will install PostgreSQL version 16 along with libpq:
  • Effective Neovim Setup. A Beginner’s Guide
    5 projects | dev.to | 9 Mar 2024
    On a macOS machine, you can use homebrew by running the command.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing nixpkgs and HomeBrew you can also consider the following projects:

asdf - Extendable version manager with support for Ruby, Node.js, Elixir, Erlang & more

spack - A flexible package manager that supports multiple versions, configurations, platforms, and compilers.

Home Manager using Nix - Manage a user environment using Nix [maintainer=@rycee]

git-lfs - Git extension for versioning large files

Visual Studio Code - Visual Studio Code

easyeffects - Limiter, compressor, convolver, equalizer and auto volume and many other plugins for PipeWire applications

winget-cli - WinGet is the Windows Package Manager. This project includes a CLI (Command Line Interface), PowerShell modules, and a COM (Component Object Model) API (Application Programming Interface).

osxfuse - FUSE extends macOS by adding support for user space file systems

waydroid - Waydroid uses a container-based approach to boot a full Android system on a regular GNU/Linux system like Ubuntu.

Chocolatey - Chocolatey - the package manager for Windows