It’s safe to say that the Apple ecosystem brought “app stores” to the mainstream. Before the introduction of the iPhone, buying digital software was often full of trials like submitting your payment to the developer’s website, waiting for a license key by email, and negotiating refunds. You’d be forgiven for thinking that free and open source software (FOSS) is rare on the Mac, given Apple’s approach. In reality, the Mac is an excellent host for many of the community’s best free tools. MacPorts is your “app store” for all this great software. Let’s take a look at how it works. What Is MacPorts? MacPorts is a package system for Macs. It’s very similar in function and use to the Red Hat Package Management (RPM) system and Advanced Package Tools (APT), which install DEB packages on Linux. Actually, it descends from the Ports system of FreeBSD. Did you know Mac OS X started its life as a fork of FreeBSD called Darwin? Even today macOS has a sol...
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