MacOS - Homebrew, Zsh vs Bash and alternate terminal apps
 

Anyone using homebrew on MacOS?

I see lots of chatter about it on the 'Net, but I'm wondering if anyone here actually uses it.

Also, has anyone used one of the several other terminal apps that are available
MacTerm
iTerm2 (or iTerm)
Kitty
Alactritty
etc...

I'd like something more than the standard

Also, the newest versions of terminal default to Zsh. I think I saw something about being able to change to Bash. Has anyone made that change.

What are the Bash/Zsh pros and cons?

Also, just for a bit more nerd stuff in this thread.

System Toolkit Lite (free) (and presumably System Toolkit [not Lite] $2.99) is pretty cool. It gives you a little more info at your finger tips for memory, processor, network, etc...

Also, if you're curious about what apps are talking to and having more granular control over what your Mac talks to, Little Snitch is pretty cool ($49, I think).

haven't used Homebrew in years.

iTerm is my go to terminal

I also like Brackets as my text editor

Good info, thanks.

Wait, Brackets is made with java? How can that be any good? ;)

I use homebrew all the time as an installer and app manager.
The only terminal app I need is ZOC - it’s a 3270 terminal emulator. For everything else the regular Mac terminal works fine. Have no issues running bash scripts in it. As an editor I’ll use VS or BBEdit or STS depending on what I’m doing. Office suite for regular stuff.

no love for Vim?

One of my absolutely favorite things about BBEdit was ease of GREP.

Used it for years but then they started moving essential features into the paid version and my need for those features did not match the value proposition so I moved on.

I know I'm an outlier, but I use xQuartz

Nope. But sorta on the same subject, I bought a used mac pro for $1500 in 2013 or so, a 2.1 (dual 3.0quads, 32 gigs ram, etc). Sold the monitor for $300, upgraded to SSDs, dual booted into windows and used it for CAD modeling, rendering and animation. I got a side gig with bodyglove rendering all their phone cases for their website, so that made me about $15,000 on top of my normal job. PRoblem is the EFI was 32 bit and I was stuck running 10.11, there is no way to get a newer operating system on it.

So about a month ago I found a used mac pro 5.1 hexcore on FB marketplace for $300. Seller lived 4 hours away, but it turns out his dad was 8 minutes from my house, so guy drove down to deliver it. Swapped my videocard and HDs, but then I splurged on some NVME SSDs for it.... man.... this computer, for under $500 bones and being 10 years old, is so friggin awesome. I do all my video editing on it, and it's just a beast!