[lsiebert]

So I used to be a Linux mint/ubuntu/fedora user (I distro hopped a bit), but I really like how homebrew on macs is per user account rather than system wide, and I can just delete the folder to reset it for the most part (minus running programs, some GUI casks, and shortcuts). AFAIK, apt-get and most if not all linux package managers only work system wide, and I can't install something just for a specific user. Maybe arch is different? Homebrew definitely has issues though, agreed.

Incidentally I ran all of those distros on a T430... which still works fine when I boot it up. Thinkpads are great linux machines, and just great easily repairable machines in general.

[microtonal]

AFAIK, apt-get and most if not all linux package managers only work system wide, and I can't install something just for a specific user.

Not all. Nix and guix allow you to install packages into your own profile as an unprivileged user. Best of all, packages that are installed by multiple users are shared in the Nix store.

[michaelmrose]

Per user installs are unnecessary for most users. Firstly most machines are single user. In multi-user machines installing additional software/libraries system-wide has no downsides. If a particular piece of software can't be installed globally without conflicting with other software it probably needs stronger isolation than your user account and you have multiple better options to achieve this.

The sole case that leaves are cases in which your company doesn't allow you the necessary privileges to install software which is an organizational challenge not a technical one.

That said something like nix can allow you to install software per user.

[Galanwe]

I think you should not compare package managers like that.

The way I see it, a system is a stack: that is you put a number of layers on top of each other.

The kernel is a layer at the very bottom, on top of which you stack a distribution. This distribution is managed through a package manager. On top of this distribution you could stack a user package manager.

In this view, you cannot compare apt or yum to home brew, they don’t belong to the same layer.

If you think about it, that makes sense. User package managers have to rely on the underlying layer to provide tools for e.g. compiling user packages.

Now I agree that in real life, the limit between layers can be more blurry:

- system package managers distribute end users softwares. Because most desktops are single user so having an extra layer is often not necessary.

- some system package managers are re-purposed to be stacked as user package managers. E.g. you can use gentoo prefix.

Still, to have a clear picture in mind the layers should be considered.

That being said, there are a bunch of user package managers you can also use on Linux. Have a look at spack for instance. I think the nix package manager can be used like that also.