Comment by mike_hearn
1 hour ago
Homebrew isn't standard package management on macOS. It's an aftermarket mod that Apple didn't have any design input to at all, and which largely imports the laissez-faire Linux approach to packaging to an OS that has a totally different design for native apps.
> Someone even thinking it is reasonable to try to use a mac to manage production would be grounds for me to ensure they never have production access.
It should be the other way around. I'd be extremely careful before allowing anyone to manage prod from anything other than a Mac. Apple has an OS design that can be solve many serious supply chain and credential stealing attacks. SREs don't maximally exploit it today, and Apple only focuses on consumer use cases so they aren't going to use it to solve server management problems. I think there's a business opportunity in fixing that. But Apple has put in place all the infrastructure you need, whereas the Linux community simply hasn't.
> It's an aftermarket mod
Unfortunately one I have never seen a MacOS production engineering guide that does not say "install brew" as like step one, exactly because Apple failed to provide a software suite sufficient to meet developer needs on par with that of major linux distributions. Macports is at least maintained by current/former apple employees and signs their packages, but in practice no one knows macports exists.
> I'd be extremely careful before allowing anyone to manage prod from anything other than a Mac.
I would never even consider letting anyone near production Linux servers if they are not comfortable enough to maintain and secure Linux on the computer in front of them.
> I think there's a business opportunity in fixing that.
Me too! I am in the current YC batch for exactly that reason with https://caution.co , built with https://stagex.tools.