Linux: OK, it's 2025 now. Is it a good time to use homebrew on linux?

[Cufoon]

Additional Info

• I am using Windows Subsystem for Linux

Output of brew config

none

Output of brew doctor

none

Description of issue

Homebrew has been known to me many years, I have used it on MacOS on which it worked very well. But I still not use it on linux, anyway it can not works as on MacOS.

I have started to use scoop on Windows some months ago, the experience is very nice. Although linux distributions all have their own package manager tools(like apt of debian or ubuntu), but there are so many opensource programs which not published to apt registry. As published, I hate write some apt source files and do apt update, it works a little matter. I just want to have a way (even just a script) to install and update programs.
I will prefer using apt to install and update system programs.
And I want to talk with someone, getting experience info of using homebrew on linux.
Apart from the possibility of installing software outside the prefix path as mentioned above, are there any other hard-to-use bugs? Is it stable enough?

[SMillerDev]

anyway it can not works as on MacOS.

It works exactly the same as on macOS, but the restrictions we enforce on macOS are not currently enforced on Linux. It's simply something to keep in mind when installing from unofficial taps.

And I want to talk with someone, getting experience info of using homebrew on linux.

It's roughly 9% of all users so that should be doable, https://formulae.brew.sh/analytics/os-version/30d/

Apart from the possibility of installing software outside the prefix path as mentioned above, are there any other hard-to-use bugs?

The lack of sandbox isn't a bug, it's a missing implementation because nobody found it important enough to add yet. In addition to that, there is no one Linux. Everyone will have a slightly different setup and will have a slightly different experience. At least for Ubuntu we're running CI for every piece of software the official tap packages, so that should all work.

[alebcay]

I can speak a bit more to the lack of sandbox concern. Note that any sandboxing only occurs while building/packaging software. There is no runtime sandboxing/isolation (in the style of flatpak/appimage/snap). I have done some investigation on possibly implementing build-time sandboxing on Linux and I've ran into the following requirements/challenges:

• Homebrew is designed (as far as security and threat model) to run as a non-root user. This rules out the possibility of using a chroot (which is also not a very thorough sandbox mechanism, but is better than nothing). Maybe it's worth looking into fakechroot.
• Homebrew's CI runs in containers, so tools for sandboxing in userspace without requiring root still might not work (need to be able to unshare namespaces, or some other syscalls). Some tools in this category include proot, sydbox, firejail, minijail.