What did we do? 2024 edition
Published on December 29, 2024 by Colin Dean
Developments we made
Since the last annual update in December 2023, we have released several minor versions of Homebrew. We also concluded work on our security audit funded by Open Technology Fund and conducted by Trail of Bits. Some of this work was performed during our summer hackathon.
Top highlights:
- 4.2.0: Requiring Ruby 3 and shipping a Portable Ruby installed when needed, upgrading fewer dependencies, .env file configuration, macOS Sonoma (14) support
- 4.3.0: SBOM support, initial bottle attestation verification, new command analytics and uninstall autoremove by default.
- 4.4.0: official macOS Sequoia (15) support, INSTALL_RECEIPT.json files for casks, macOS Monterey (12) deprecation and various other deprecations.
Services we used
Ongoing vendor relationships
We’ve funded ongoing vendor relationships with Google Cloud Platform for long Linux builds, MacStadium for our macOS builds and DNSimple for DNS hosting. We continue to use GitHub for source and site hosting, standard CI, Copilot and development Codespaces, the latter two for which we pay when we exceed free tier limits. We also use InfluxDB for analytics, which is paid via AWS Marketplace.
People we paid
Maintainer Grants
In December 2022, we created a program that pays a stipend to the maintainers who work on Homebrew. This program incentivizes recurring contributors to continue contributing as they take more responsibility within the project. In 2024, Homebrew paid $60,251.35 to 21 maintainers under this program.
Hardware Grants
We continued our hardware grants program, which enables maintainers to request new hardware for working Homebrew. Several maintainers are taking advantage of holiday pricing for upcoming workstation purchases. At AGM, we'll finalize the amount spent as we evaluate this program.
Dependency Sponsorships
We halted dependency sponsorships in 2023 because of accounting problems that we hoped to resolve in 2024 but have yet to do so.
Things we did
Annual General Meeting 2024
We met at the Thon Hotel in Brussels in February and reimbursed maintainers from several countries who attended the meeting in person. For some, it was their first trip outside of their home continent! Maintainers were reimbursed from the 501(c)3 organization. You can read the minutes online.
Exhausted 501(c)3 Funds
Funds donated to Homebrew through the Software Freedom Conservancy when it was our fiscal host were limited in use and required to be held by a 501(c)3 entity. With the closure of the Open Collective Foundation, we prioritized spending from the 501(c)3 for most expenses in 1H 2024, including our Homebrew Hackathon.
Homebrew Hackathon
We held our inaugural working meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. The PLC planted the seeds for the meeting at the AGM in Brussels in February 2024, and it grew into an excellent event. The meeting reunited 11 maintainers focused on security and performance enhancements. Many members submitted project ideas, and a dozen were selected to attend. If funds are available, we'll repeat the event premise in 2025.
Conference Exhibits
We paid for some of our maintainers to travel to conferences on behalf of Homebrew. You probably saw Homebrew at FOSDEM, The Merge, and GitHub Universe.
On our minds for 2025
Annual General Meeting 2025
We have reserved a meeting room at the NH Collection Hotel in Brussels in February and will reimburse maintainers who attend the meeting in person. Maintainers will be reimbursed from our 501(c)6 funds.
FOSDEM and more
We paid for additional promotional materials for our stand at FOSDEM and were exhibiting at a few conferences in Europe and the United States in 2024, and will continue in 2025.
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