Mike McQuaid on 16 years of maintaining Homebrew | Episode 5 | The GitHub Podcast

Quick Overview

Mike McQuaid, the project leader for Homebrew, discusses the tool's 16-year history, its role as the de facto package manager for macOS developers, and the importance of fostering a positive community culture to retain maintainers despite the challenges of volunteer open source work.

Key Points: Homebrew has been maintained for over 16 years and is the package manager of choice for many macOS developers, installing tens of millions of packages worldwide. Mike McQuaid, the project leader, notes that Homebrew predates GitHub Pull Requests being a primary contribution method, having been created when he was working at a startup in London and complaining about MacPorts. The project leader mentions the community has grown significantly, currently having 29 active maintainers, and they actively try to avoid burnout by encouraging positive interactions. McQuaid believes the key to success in open source maintenance is not just technical skill but also maintaining a positive culture, as people are more likely to stick around if they feel supported and not aggressively criticized. The project leader personally focuses on writing good documentation and examples rather than only fixing issues, preferring to guide others rather than be the sole problem solver. GitHub's relationship with open source projects like Homebrew has evolved, with GitHub now providing infrastructure (like Actions and Copilot) that simplifies contribution workflows. McQuaid shares his favorite tool is 'flukeout.github.io', a CSS animation tool created by his friend Luke, which he finds useful for learning CSS.

Context: This is an interview segment from the GitHub Podcast featuring Abby Cabunoc Mayes (Lead Open Source Maintainer, GitHub) and Andrea Griffiths (Senior Developer Advocate, GitHub) speaking with Mike McQuaid, the Homebrew Project Leader. The discussion centers on the longevity, culture, and maintenance challenges of the Homebrew project, which serves as the primary package manager for many on macOS.