Open Source Package Management Software Homebrew Gains Native Apple Silicon Support

Popular macOS package management system Homebrew today received a major update, with the 3.0.0 version introducing official support for Apple silicon chips.

homebrew logo

Apple Silicon is now officially supported for installations in /opt/homebrew. formulae.brew.sh formula pages indicate for which platforms bottles (binary packages) are provided and therefore whether they are supported by Homebrew. Homebrew doesn't (yet) provide bottles for all packages on Apple Silicon that we do on Intel x86_64 but we welcome your help in doing so. Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon still provides support for Intel x86_64 in /usr/local.

Homebrew, for those unfamiliar with the software, is a package manager like the Mac App Store. It's designed to let users quickly and easily install, uninstall, and update apps using Terminal.

Prior to now, Homebrew was able to run on M1 Macs through Rosetta 2, but now it works on the new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini natively. Homebrew doesn't yet support bottles for all packages on Apple silicon that are available on x86_64, but improvements will be made in the future.

According to Homebrew developer Mike McQuaid, the 3.0.0 development was helped along by MacStadium and Apple, with Apple providing hardware and migration help.

Popular Stories

iOS 26 on iPhone Feature

Here's When iOS 26 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone [Update: Out Now!]

Monday September 15, 2025 12:00 am PDT by
Update 10:06 a.m.: iOS 26 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Today's the day! Apple is about to release iOS 26, which will deliver the biggest redesign since iOS 7 and bring a range of new features and improvements to iPhones worldwide. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at last week's iPhone event that...
Tim Cook Rainbow

Apple Reportedly Plans to Launch These 10 Products in 'Coming Months'

Sunday September 14, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple's annual September event is now in the rearview mirror, with the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch SE 3, and AirPods Pro 3 set to launch this Friday, September 19. As always, there is more to come. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple plans to release many products in the...
apple n1 chip

Apple's New N1 Chip in iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone Air Has a Wi-Fi 7 Limitation

Saturday September 13, 2025 10:01 am PDT by
The latest iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air models are equipped with Apple's all-new N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread connectivity. However, the chip has a Wi-Fi 7 bandwidth limitation. According to FCC documents reviewed by MacRumors, the N1 chip in all of the new iPhone models supports up to 160 MHz channel bandwidth for Wi-Fi 7, short of the...
iOS 26 Battery Glass Feature

Apple Says Installing iOS 26 Might Impact Battery Life

Monday September 15, 2025 10:56 am PDT by
In the iOS 26 release notes, Apple is warning iPhone users that installing the new software might have a temporary impact on battery life, which is normal. A new support document explains that major iOS updates require background setup like indexing data and files for search, downloading new assets, and updating apps. Further, Apple says that new features could require more resources,...
iphone 17 lineup

iPhone 17 Models Launch on September 19 With These New Features

Friday September 12, 2025 7:58 am PDT by
Apple will launch its new iPhone 17 lineup and ultra-thin iPhone Air in stores on Friday, September 19, and the company has already shown off the new devices at its fall event, which ran with the the tagline "Awe dropping." The iPhone 17 series brings a host of new features and enhancements. Here's a rundown of the biggest upgrades and changes: iPhone 17 Display Changes The iPhone...
iphone air all colors

iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Now Facing Extended Delivery Estimates

Saturday September 13, 2025 11:43 am PDT by
iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air pre-orders began on Friday in the U.S. and many other countries. iPhone 17 Pro Max delivery estimates quickly slipped beyond the Friday, September 19 launch day for those who had yet to place an order, and now the rest of the new models have started to follow suit. As of shortly after 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time today, select iPhone 17, ...
iPhone 17 Pro Air Boxes

iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Boxes Revealed

Sunday September 14, 2025 1:36 pm PDT by
T-Mobile President Jon Freier today shared real-world photos of Apple's boxes for the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 models, which launch on Friday. Image Credit: Jon Freier Apple has typically included iPhone box renders in its product environmental reports, but it did not do so for the latest models. However, Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program page does offer some images of the boxes, ...
iPhone 17 Pro Colors

Didn't Pre-Order a New iPhone Yet? Here's How Long the Wait is Now

Friday September 12, 2025 6:11 am PDT by
iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air pre-orders began at 5 a.m. Pacific Time in the U.S. and many other countries today. If you have yet to place a pre-order, you might face a longer wait now, depending on your desired configuration. As of shortly after 6 a.m. Pacific Time today, nearly all iPhone 17 Pro Max configurations on Apple's online store in the U.S. are facing ...

Top Rated Comments

aesc80 Avatar
60 months ago
Holy crap, yes!!! Now we're getting the good stuff!!! I realize how hard it can be to get tools working on a new platform, so this is definitely appreciated!
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FishyFish Avatar
60 months ago

I dont know why but I cant seem to find anything useful in Homebrew, yes I could use youtube-dl but even short videos are like almost a gig.

Do you guys recommend trying out something? I just dont think Homebrew is useful in any way.
Just off the top of my head of things I use every day:

awscli, tldr, htop, ncdu, speedtest-cli, pyenv, pyenv-virtualenv, tmux, nvm, node, redis, yarn, git, tree, unrar, wget, docker, httpie, nginx... I'm sure others as well
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LeeW Avatar
60 months ago

I just dont think Homebrew is useful in any way.
It is great for developers like me. But yes, not much use for general users.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aesc80 Avatar
60 months ago

I dont know why but I cant seem to find anything useful in Homebrew, yes I could use youtube-dl but even short videos are like almost a gig.

Do you guys recommend trying out something? I just dont think Homebrew is useful in any way.
It's definitely a developer thing. There's a bunch of tools that can be installed freely with Homebrew without having to manage all the different invocations. The general user can stick to the App Store, or whatever other site that offers their apps.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EugenesSoggySalami Avatar
60 months ago
I dont know why but I cant seem to find anything useful in Homebrew, yes I could use youtube-dl but even short videos are like almost a gig.

Do you guys recommend trying out something? I just dont think Homebrew is useful in any way.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
name99 Avatar
60 months ago

I dont know why but I cant seem to find anything useful in Homebrew, yes I could use youtube-dl but even short videos are like almost a gig.

Do you guys recommend trying out something? I just dont think Homebrew is useful in any way.
Gotta say MacPorts has always been way more useful for my needs.
(As for what I use from MacPorts, the primary functionality is a set of tools like sox and ffmpeg that I use in a script that speeds up audio and video files by some arbitrary factor (while preserving pitch).

The audio speedup is less essential these days in that Apple gives us some degree of flexibility in audio speedup, though still not that many choices. And while I do the audio speedup I fix it up in other useful ways like companding and silence removal.
Apple has never embraced video speedup (after the days of QuickTime as QuickTime; back when I was on the team we definitely supported it even doing backward playback smoothly. My smooth backward MPEG playback remains the only such implementation I have ever seen.) But if you're watching, eg, video lectures, you want speedup for the same reason you want audio speedup!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)