This free tool gives you one easy way to install apps on Linux and Mac – here’s how

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• Homebrew is a tool for installing command-line apps.
• Homebrew is available for both Linux and MacOS.
• There are tons of apps that can be installed via Homebrew.

For some, installing and managing apps from the command line is a deal-breaker. For others, it's a way of life. I can go both ways. I love the ease of use a GUI gives me, but I also appreciate the power and flexibility of the command line.

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It's just one of the areas in which Linux shines. You have so many options for installing applications. There's your distribution's default package managers, such as apt, dnf, zypper, pacman, pkg, rpm, dpkg, etc. There's also the universal package managers, Snap and Flatpak. Add AppImages and source into the mix, and the number of apps you can install seems limitless.

Hold on. There's yet another method, one that comes from MacOS. That method is Homebrew.

What is Homebrew?

Homebrew is a free, open-source package manager for Linux and MacOS that simplifies the installation and management of software. Think of Homebrew as a command-line version of the App Store that allows you to install command-line tools such as Python, Node.js, and more with ease.

Why would you want Homebrew?

The primary reason for wanting Homebrew is that the apps available to the tool are maintained by both Linux and MacOS developers, which is a much larger community than just Linux.

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On top of that, why not have the same package manager on both Linux and MacOS? It just makes sense. What this equates to is that you only need to know one package manager for both. Sure, you'll still want to use your distribution's package manager, but if you jump between Linux and MacOS (as I do), knowing that you can use the same package manager on both is a bonus.

How to install Homebrew on Linux

You might think that installing Homebrew on Linux (or MacOS, for that matter) would be a challenge. It's not. All you have to do is open a terminal application and run the following command:

If you get an error that curl is not installed, you can resolve that with:

• Ubuntu-based distributions – sudo apt-get install curl
• Fedora-based distributions – sudo dnf install curl
• Arch-based distributions – pacman -S curl

During the installation, you'll be asked a few questions; in each instance, hit Return to accept the default. When the installation completes, you have a few more things to take care of.

Add Homebrew to your PATH

If using Ubuntu, install Homebrew's dependencies

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Log out and log back in.

How to use Homebrew

Using Homebrew is very simple. Say, for instance, you can install gcc with:

brew install gcc

You can also easily upgrade a package like so:

brew upgrade gcc

Homebrew can also be used to remove packages like this:

brew uninstall gcc

To find out what apps are available to install via Homebrew (there are tons of them), take a look at this official listing.

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The only downfall of this is that cask (the tool for installing GUI apps with Homebrew) is only available on MacOS. Even so, having Homebrew on Linux is a nice tool to include, especially if you hop between OSes.