[lloyd-christmas]

> Node.js

I'm not sure where your downloading your software, as there is (and has been for at least the last 4 years) a graphical installer on the downloads page for osx:

https://nodejs.org/en/download/

Maybe I just haven't paid enough attention when doing this, but nearly every repository of every package for node has the default instructions for *nix command line. One of my most used packages is `n`, and the first line after the description is

"Unfortunately n is not supported on Windows yet"

It's main alternative, `nvm` also has:

"Note: nvm does not support Windows"

and suggests an alternative specifically named `nvm-windows`. When you have to specify the operating system in the name, it's typically the "off-brand".

[hungerstrike]

I bet you don’t use the graphical installer on your Mac though do you?

Why is that? What do you do instead?

[lloyd-christmas]

> I bet you don’t use the graphical installer on your Mac though do you?

Your mind reading skills are terrible. I'm not sure who or what gave you that impression.

EDIT:

Again, from the node site, clicking on install with package manager, both windows and osx lead off with "simply download the installer" before listing alternatives.

https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/#macos

https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/#windows

[hungerstrike]

OK fine. I see a lot of people using homebrew.

What about python? You have to replace the built-in one don’t you?

[Fnoord]

> OK fine. I see a lot of people using homebrew.

Its been the defacto standard for package management for a while, and it works on top of the base OS thanks to /usr/local having priority in $PATH

> What about python? You have to replace the built-in one don’t you?

If Python 2.7.10 doesn't suit your needs, yes.

$ /usr/bin/python --version Python 2.7.10

$ /usr/local/bin/python2 --version Python 2.7.15

$ /usr/local/bin/python3 --version Python 3.6.5

Same with Bash:

$ /bin/bash --version GNU bash, version 3.2.57(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin17) Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

$ /usr/local/bin/bash --version GNU bash, version 4.4.19(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin17.3.0) Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

With Python it is a bit annoying with variables but other than that not a big deal. I started out with Bash v2 so that's my reference point. Sometimes its annoying for portability reasons.

Rumor is Apple doesn't like GPLv3. I don't see it as a big problem but that is thanks to the efforts of Homebrew package maintainers.

[lloyd-christmas]

> Its been the defacto standard for package management

While I agree that it's a standard for package management, I don't think that using a package manager is the defacto standard. I've yet to see any onboarding docs that use brew install, for the reasons I stated parallel to your comment.

[lloyd-christmas]

> I see a lot of people using homebrew.

The major reason I don't use homebrew and don't recommend it is because it's an absolute pain to use a version manager due to where brew stores its binary files.

I don't use python very frequently, so I don't really think much about it much when installing. I'm pretty sure I installed it with anaconda, but can't remember. As I mentioned above I doubt I used brew for the same reason.

I typically only use brew for installing linux commands that are absent from osx or for one-off uses of something random. Looking at my brew list, it's things like phantomjs or rethinkdb. I'll uninstall them with brew and use their installer if I actually end up using them.