Package Management Learnings from Homebrew

Homebrew released v5.0.0 in November 2025. I walk through the major changes in that release, what expectations we're aiming to improve based on other package managers and what they can learn from Homebrew's approach.

Transcript

1. Mike McQuaid Package Management Learnings from Homebrew
2. Mike McQuaid https://mikemcquaid.com
3. Why? 🤔
4. brew install works: no-one cares 😑
5. brew install breaks: we're fucked 🤬
6. my toilet works: no-one cares 🚽
7. my toilet breaks: shit everywhere 💩
8. Act 1
9. 5.0.0
10. "Homebrew is slow" 🐢
11. "Bundler is slow" 🐢
12. "Cargo is fast" 🏎
13. "uv is fast" 🏎
14. "Bundler is fast" 🏎
15. "$brew in Rust is fast" 💩
16. 🧑🧑🧒🧒 HOMEBREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY=auto 📲 HOMEBREW_USE_INTERNAL_API=1
17. 👩🏫 brew prof 🛜 ghcr.io 🥊 bash
18. "Homebrew is fast(er)" 🏎
19. Act 2
20. Support
21. "Homebrew compiles" 🐢
22. "Homebrew extracts" 🏎
23. Homebrew on macOS x86_64
24. Homebrew on macOS x86_64 Homebrew on Linux x86_64
25. Homebrew on macOS x86_64 Homebrew on Linux x86_64 Homebrew on macOS arm64 Homebrew on Linux arm64
26. Homebrew on macOS x86_64 Homebrew on Linux x86_64 Homebrew on macOS arm64 Homebrew on Linux arm64 Homebrew on ...?
27. Homebrew on macOS 26 Homebrew on macOS 15 Homebrew on macOS 14
28. Homebrew on macOS 26 x86_64 Homebrew on macOS 26 arm64 Homebrew on macOS 15 x86_64 Homebrew on macOS 15 arm64 Homebrew on macOS 14 x86_64 Homebrew on macOS 14 arm64
29. Homebrew on macOS 26 x86_64 Homebrew on macOS 26 arm64 Homebrew on macOS 15 x86_64 Homebrew on macOS 15 arm64 Homebrew on macOS 14 x86_64 Homebrew on macOS 14 arm64 Homebrew on Linux x86_64 Homebrew on Linux arm64
30. "Homebrew is slow" 🐢
31. Homebrew on macOS 26 arm64 Homebrew on macOS 15 arm64 Homebrew on macOS 14 x86_64 Homebrew on macOS 14 arm64 Homebrew on Linux x86_64 Homebrew on Linux arm64
32. 26-09
33. Homebrew on macOS 27 arm64 Homebrew on macOS 26 arm64 Homebrew on macOS 15 arm64 Homebrew on Linux x86_64 Homebrew on Linux arm64
34. "Homebrew hates me" 👴 🖥 💾
35. "Homebrew cannot support me" 👴 🖥 💾
36. 📲 --no-quarantine ⚠ odeprecated ⛔ odisabled 🔥 deleted
37. https://doc.rust-lang.org/rustc/platform-support.html
38. https://docs.brew.sh/Support-Tiers
39. https://mmq.lol/nothing
40. Act 3
41. Money
42. Money
43. Code
44. Code
45. Humans
46. self promotion 🤮
47. https://mmq.lol/robot
48. https://mmq.lol/funnel
49. https://mmq.lol/economics
50. https://mmq.lol/no
51. https://mmq.lol/nothing
52. Acts 1⃣ Default to fast 2⃣ Publish support reality 3⃣ Optimise for maintainers
53. You! 🏎 Make something faster 🩼 1 sentence "supported" 🙅 Set maintainer boundary
54. Questions? 💜 mike@brew.sh https://mikemcquaid.com