It reminds me about this answer from Homebrew's creator, Max Howell, on Quora[1]:
> I wrote a simple package manager. Anyone could write one. And in fact mine is pretty bad. It doesn't do dependency management properly. It doesn’t handle edge case behavior well. It isn’t well tested. It’s shit frankly.
> Is it any surprise I couldn’t answer their heavily computer-science questions well?
> On the other hand, my software was insanely successful. Why is that? Well the answer is not in the realm of computer science. I have always had a user-experience focus to my software. Homebrew cares about the user.
Yes, Homebrew's approach on package management is a bad smell to me. It gets broken by every other major OS update, it messes up your Python PATH for no good reason, it forces a lot of opinionated decisions on users if the maintainers think it benefits the majority(and ignores voice from minority)... But Homwbrew still wins because users really like it. It is that simple. With its popularity and the strong community, it will continue to be the top choice for most of the mac users. Max Howell may not be a rock star programmer in my mind, but I have no doubt that he could've been a very successful product manager.
Personally I don't plan to switch from macports to homebrew any time soon, but I stopped grumbling about how bad it is years ago.
I am using brew because it works, as simple as that. If in 99% of cases I can type "brew install stuff" and it installs stuff, I am happy. Does it have outliers? Sure, as pretty much any other software, sometimes it breaks. But it delivers environment where I can install stuff without wasting my time on boring crap like figuring out how to build it and resolve conflicts with other crap - it's enough for me. Even if it only does that in 99% of cases, still much better than not having it.
As I see it, a major problem in software is that when you have a problem, it's often not clear who or what is at fault. Let's say my laptop is slow, particularly when I have lots of browser tabs open. Should I blame:
1. My hardware?
2. My OS?
3. My web browser?
4. My browser extensions?
5. Websites?
6. The chat app I keep open in the background?
7. The Electron settings app for my RGB Keyboard?
8. My internet connection?
9. A virus?
10. "Technology", presumably alongside some wistful thoughts of "the good old days"?
Most users, even non-technical ones, are going to blame one of these things. And, more often than not, their conclusions will have more to do with marketing and happenstance than the actual cause
All of which is to say, that quote kind of bothers me. You cannot actually be focused on user experience while skimping on technical details. You may have created an experience in which users feel inclined to blame someone else, but that's not the same thing. You are the knowledgable developer, and your users are not.
Have you tried uninstalling Chrome? I hear it can make your WindowServer go wild :P
More seriously, though, this is why I hate people who use software like Electron and claim their users can't notice: of course they can, they just complain that their computer is slow because they can't pinpoint it on your app. As a developer who knows better, your entire charade depends on ignorant users being unable to point the blame at you for what you have done to them. Combine this with the lock-in typical of today where users are resigned to use your software even if they don't particularly want to and now the people who do know what you're doing can't do anything about it either.
> I wrote a simple package manager. Anyone could write one. And in fact mine is pretty bad. It doesn't do dependency management properly. It doesn’t handle edge case behavior well. It isn’t well tested. It’s shit frankly. > Is it any surprise I couldn’t answer their heavily computer-science questions well? > On the other hand, my software was insanely successful. Why is that? Well the answer is not in the realm of computer science. I have always had a user-experience focus to my software. Homebrew cares about the user.
Yes, Homebrew's approach on package management is a bad smell to me. It gets broken by every other major OS update, it messes up your Python PATH for no good reason, it forces a lot of opinionated decisions on users if the maintainers think it benefits the majority(and ignores voice from minority)... But Homwbrew still wins because users really like it. It is that simple. With its popularity and the strong community, it will continue to be the top choice for most of the mac users. Max Howell may not be a rock star programmer in my mind, but I have no doubt that he could've been a very successful product manager.
Personally I don't plan to switch from macports to homebrew any time soon, but I stopped grumbling about how bad it is years ago.
1. https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-logic-behind-Google-rejectin...