What is the best way to install various open-source packages on a Mac?

Question

For many years, I used nothing but various flavours of linux (most recently, Linux Mint). I was so used to installing stuff using package managers (apt-get and yum). It was so easy, for example, to get the LAMP stack up and running.

I recently switched to a Mac, and I suddenly miss the familiar apt-get. Some packages come as .pkg, others as .dmg and lots without any package (for example, apache or php). For these, I have to use pseudo package managers such as Macports or Homebrew.

My question is: which is the best way to install various open-source packages on a Mac?

Answer 1

Though its true that MAC does not have commands like apt-get or yum but MAC has its way out to install opensource or UNIX utilities. The easiest way to install is via a package manager which come in the form of Homebrew (https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew )

Other available is options are MacPorts (https://www.macports.org ) and Fink (http://www.finkproject.org )

Comments

I am currently using macports, but someone suggested that Homebrew is better. But why is it better and would you recommend it?

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I googled for it and found this link,
http://tedwise.com/2010/08/28/homebrew-vs-macports

Here is the summary -
The major benefits of Homebrew over MacPorts are simplicity, lack of intrusiveness, and speed. Homebrew’s recipes try very hard to use the existing tools and libraries in OS/X, so they tend to build much faster and require fewer dependent libraries. The recipes themselves are Ruby scripts and are small, simple to understand and easy to create and modify. But, honestly, if all you want is to install wget and newer versions of git and other open source tools, you’ll never need to look at or understand Homebrew’s recipes. Just brew install wget, brew install git and be happy.