Re: The problem with not owning the software

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Tue, 7 Jan 2025 00:12:18 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote:
 

More to illustrate that building from source was possible.

 
I never said it wasn’t, just that it doesn’t scale well without a proper
package manager to help with the dependencies -- something that macOS
lacks.

It doesn't lack it, it's simply not part of the core OS as it is a niche
requirement.

That's the beauty of an OSS community. Additional capabilities are
available to those who want/need them.

How complex were those builds you managed? Does each download include
all its dependencies?

 
Fairly simple to moderately complex with internal and external
dependencies, but that was a while back.

 
How did you handle getting hold of the dependencies for each build?

With a package manager, obviously. Firstly, macports and then homebrew.

You're focusing on the exception rather than the rule, however. Installing
OSS is not a "complete nightmare" without a package manager *because* most
software is already packaged for easy installation. Either via the
developer themselves or the App Store.

If you are expert enough to want to install stuff from source then you can
on macos with the help of Homebrew.