running macports along with homebrew

[Chris Jones]

Hi

On 14/02/18 23:42, Michael wrote:
>> I think we should look at ways in which MacPorts is harder to use and see if we can address those.
> 
> I'd say that being able to install software without having to use sudo would be my number one.


Personally, one of the reasons I choose MacPorts over the alternatives 
many years back when I was new to OSX was precisely *because* MacPorts 
uses sudo to install, and not my regular user account. I want the 
software installation prefix controlled by an account I do not have 
write access to by default...

What exactly are your problems with using sudo ? If its just the fact 
you have to enter a password, then that is easily solvable by you just 
editing your sudoers file, to give your user account access to run the 
port command via sudo without needing to give it. I always do this on 
the systems I work on, as it allows me to run port without the 
inconvenience of entering the password all the time, but with all the 
benefits of having the installation read only other wise.

Just my thoughts, but MacPorts should not be looking to change its way 
of working to match what the likes of homebrew does. We should embrace 
what makes it different (better) and instead put more emphasis to 
explain that.

One thing perhaps we could do is look more at the web site. No offense 
to the maintainers, but I think if average user looking into package 
managers looks at our respective web sites, its not perhaps that 
surprising why at that first point of contact with them they drift more 
to homebrew. If we want get more of those users, that is IMHO where we 
should first make the effort...

cheers Chris