A very valid question, I've been a Fink user, then MacPorts, then Arch OS X, then Homebrew and now Arch OS X again, and I've got some more detailed writing about this that I ought to publish one day. From the top of my head:
- PGP-signed repo db + packages (Homebrew relies solely on git SHA1s)
- package binary deltas
- building new packages is very simple thanks to ABS (Fink and MacPorts are a pain)
- doesn't write everything as a single user in a possibly multi-user machine (yes people sometimes still do share machines)
- doesn't get clobbered by software that puts stuff in /usr/local (installs in /opt/arch)
- daemons such as postgresql can run as their dedicated user
- uses sudo, so can do stuff Homebrew won't (like populate /etc/shells, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/Extensions)
- makepkg builds under user, "install" with fakeroot, only pacman needs root
- synergy as an ArchLinux user, so have the benefit of a single way to manage packages
To each his own, and Homebrew is awesome (I've contributed some stuff there myself) but sometimes there are itches to be scratched: no one use case is exactly the same as another.
I'm mostly happy with Homebrew but I have had trouble occasionally with the multi-user thing. Because some people (at least one!) still use different user accounts on the same Mac, e.g. "work" and "private."
- PGP-signed repo db + packages (Homebrew relies solely on git SHA1s)
- package binary deltas
- building new packages is very simple thanks to ABS (Fink and MacPorts are a pain)
- doesn't write everything as a single user in a possibly multi-user machine (yes people sometimes still do share machines)
- doesn't get clobbered by software that puts stuff in /usr/local (installs in /opt/arch)
- daemons such as postgresql can run as their dedicated user
- uses sudo, so can do stuff Homebrew won't (like populate /etc/shells, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/Extensions)
- makepkg builds under user, "install" with fakeroot, only pacman needs root
- synergy as an ArchLinux user, so have the benefit of a single way to manage packages
To each his own, and Homebrew is awesome (I've contributed some stuff there myself) but sometimes there are itches to be scratched: no one use case is exactly the same as another.