Comment by basedpolymer
1 month ago
And that's the end of Homebrew for me as a user. I like the app, but my old Intel MacBook apparently can't handle it anymore.
I'm back to the old installation methods !
1 month ago
And that's the end of Homebrew for me as a user. I like the app, but my old Intel MacBook apparently can't handle it anymore.
I'm back to the old installation methods !
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 might end up building manually (My poor i5 4core had to attempt building nodejs26 because there wasn't a pkg for Ventura)
Actually, Homebrew 7 is supported on your Mac, you just have to install Linux to use it. :)
If you want to continue using the same MacBook that will be only path forward when Apple decides to EOL it (if it hasn't already happened).
I'm a long time Homebrew on Linux user, it works really well. I always prefer it over the distro supplied package manager for user facing CLI apps.
Apple was selling Intel Mac Pros in 2023, it's absurd these things are coming up on EOL already.
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.
1 reply →
MacPorts has been there this whole time.
I've used MacPorts on macOS versions that don't support the latest OS, which per homebrew policy seems to be versions upto N-2.
Apart from the issue of having to compile the downloaded software leading to spinning fans, I'm not too concerned.
How long do you expect them to support Intel processors though? It’s been like 6 years since the last MacBook release had any Intel processor, and Apple doesn’t make OS updates anymore, so it doesn’t surprise me that Homebrew stopped too.
Are you implying that a 6 year old hardware is as good as a paperweight? Outside of the Apple fairyland this is just bonkers.
I'm not blaming the Homebrew project/developers here, but the fact that many people are okay with deprecating perfectly fine hardware.
No, he’s asking what you think a reasonable support timeline is. An open source project supporting hardware 6 years old is pretty awesome.
12 replies →
There's been a huge step up in basically everything going from intel to apple silicon. It's not a comparable hardware in any sense, and as such, it really does feel like it became a paperweight? I know I never wanted to see an intel macbook ever again the moment I tried M1. It's maybe hard to comprehend how different it is if you haven't used both. And at the same time I'm happy with my x86 desktop for 10+ years. Only thing that really improved in that span was storage.
So I wouldn't say this applies globally to apple users/products, but the post-intel era is a special case. If nothing else, they are helping the environment by not feeding that (literally) hot garbage with more electricity.
You're on macOS. you should know full well that they do not care about those values.
I have one of the last Intel Macs and works perfectly fine (on Sonoma). How long should I expect working tech being supported?
I am already looking at Linux, but still need to get out of the Apple ecosystem. I am not going to spend +2500 Euros every 5 years on a laptop
Sonoma will be getting its last security update imminently (possibly tomorrow).
What does saying "working tech" do for you? If I have a working Samsung CRT from 25 years ago do I ping them about smart TV support? Nowadays it's a shitty situation with planned obsolescence; but 6 years for an open source project dedicating resources to a dead end is more than enough and appreciated.
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And given the performance jump from Intel to Apple Silicon, the perceived difference is 10+ years even.
Sure, but 2019s Intel Macs are aboslutely usable for most tasks, and given much of the agentic dev. happens... somewhere remotely, it is more an opportunity to reuse this equipment for various tasks, rather than pollute the already dirty Earth with more electronic waste.
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Years, honestly. After all, Intel Macs just received a major macOS release from Apple only 12 months ago. MacPorts manages to support all the way back to Leopard!
Same here, but I understand their position. Meanwhile I rely on packages publishing builds for Intel Mac in GitHub (surprisingly a lot) or building from source code. I just asked AI to build me install system.
I’m installing Linux on my 2019 16” today.
FYI Macos will also stop with major updates for Intel macs. You can just keep using brew 6 on macos 26.
Have you tried Mac Ports?
You do realize Intel support is gone, right? You won't be installing anything on your Intel Mac very soon...
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