> I only started looking into this when I noticed an unfamiliar entry starting with /pkg in my PATH. I assumed something had gone awry. Then I saw that there was, indeed, a /pkg directory in the root of my filesystem. [Emphasis mine —JvD]
See, that's your problem: you think of it as your PATH and your filesystem. But it's actually Apple's and Apple's macOS's filesystem and PATH variable. They may allow you to use those to e.g. store your data and operate on it, but mostly it belongs to them, so they arrange it as they see it better fitting them. And of course, they don't really owe you an explanation of their design decisions, especially such non-user facing ones.
yeah i'm happy to be on linux fulltime now from macos. you have the ultimate control over your system at the end of the day and can inspect how everything works and change it. toshy made it easier to keep my muscle memory of mac keybindings which i love and it works really well out of the box. there was a month or two before i installed it because i though it would be this big deal that would break things but to my surprise most everything worked well ootb.
Linux is such a beautiful thing for many reasons. For those with the will, desire, and means to use it, it’s a great option.
I think from Apple’s perspective it’s the “I don’t think about you at all” meme. The users who have the will, desire, and means to switch to Linux are not their core target audience. It’s a mutually satisfactory breakup.
I grew up on apple computers and switched to windows and pcs for gaming reasons. when the iphone era came i switched back to them for my work computer and daily driver. my ideology soured when they deprecated perfectly good computers and phones from being able to run more recent software due to a few structural issues. Don't have that with linux generally and i don't want to be beholden to some update cycle to appease the apple managers and their sales targets. macos is great and the best software they've made... i just don't like their philosophy no. (that and ever since jobs died it's kinda gone downhill... tahoe is pretty bad it seems)
that said linux is objectively better in the freedom to do what you want department and complete customization areas and kde has a lot of the nice extras i had to install other software for on macos or windows out of the box. (middle mouse click on the magicmouse works out of the box, window management stuff, gaming controllers are some that come to mind)
i also think the people that think linux is some kind of super difficult thing to use forget that windows and macos have a ton of issues too and not everything works... you're just used to how it's broken and how to fix it from decades of using it. for 95% of the people that only use a handful of apps and a browser it's perfectly fine... you just need to call a different IT person to fix it or google it or even just use an LLM if you are so inclined.
The biggest difference is that usually most PC and Apple stores will handle the Windows or macOS issues, while there are hardly any Linux stores for normies other than some online stores, or for those in enterprise having maintenance support contracts from specific vendors like Lenovo and Dell.
I swear, the parasocial relationships some people have with Apple ... it's not like they're the first and only Unix vendor to have opinions on the filesystem.
Having learnt UNIX before Linux ever took off, I could not care less, it served a purpose to have a cheap UNIX at home while the campus was still on DG/UX and Solaris, personally for me any UNIX/POSIX like system will do the job.
Part of macOS 26.4, in fact: https://eclecticlight.co/2026/09/19/macos-tahoe-26-4-changed..."The layout of those hasn’t changed in over six years up to and including macOS Tahoe 26.3.1, but has altered in 26.4 and Golden Gate, with the addition of a new firmlinked directory pkg."
So if it's about that WWDC content, it would only be for a new type of MDM managed app installation (declarative management). No new first-party Homebrew ;)
Transcript (@ timestamp) for convenience:
> 10:33
> Next, packages. macOS 27 now gives IT administrators the option to remove all the files and directories that are installed by a declarative management package, when the package configuration itself is removed.
> 10:48
> This ensures unwanted data and files are not left behind on devices when no longer needed.
These are the directories under /usr/pkg on NetBSD based upon packages I installed. But setup depends upon OS and the person who set it up. I never heard of inv, maybe inv is a mac thing.
bin | include | pkgdb.refcount
dict | info | pkgsrc
etc | lib | qt5
gcc12 | libdata | qt6
gcc14 | libexec | sbin
gcc16 | man | share
gnu | pkgdb | tests
On NetBSD /var used for logs other data. But I suppose someone could configure under 'pkg' if they wanted to,
As a new Mac user I could not decide between Macports and Homebrew, and I went with pkgsrc/pkgin. Cannot complain, have had zero reason to revisit that decision ever since.
20 comments
[ 80.7 ms ] story [ 222 ms ] threadSee, that's your problem: you think of it as your PATH and your filesystem. But it's actually Apple's and Apple's macOS's filesystem and PATH variable. They may allow you to use those to e.g. store your data and operate on it, but mostly it belongs to them, so they arrange it as they see it better fitting them. And of course, they don't really owe you an explanation of their design decisions, especially such non-user facing ones.
May or may not be /s
I think from Apple’s perspective it’s the “I don’t think about you at all” meme. The users who have the will, desire, and means to switch to Linux are not their core target audience. It’s a mutually satisfactory breakup.
that said linux is objectively better in the freedom to do what you want department and complete customization areas and kde has a lot of the nice extras i had to install other software for on macos or windows out of the box. (middle mouse click on the magicmouse works out of the box, window management stuff, gaming controllers are some that come to mind)
i also think the people that think linux is some kind of super difficult thing to use forget that windows and macos have a ton of issues too and not everything works... you're just used to how it's broken and how to fix it from decades of using it. for 95% of the people that only use a handful of apps and a browser it's perfectly fine... you just need to call a different IT person to fix it or google it or even just use an LLM if you are so inclined.
Part of macOS 26.4, in fact: https://eclecticlight.co/2026/09/19/macos-tahoe-26-4-changed... "The layout of those hasn’t changed in over six years up to and including macOS Tahoe 26.3.1, but has altered in 26.4 and Golden Gate, with the addition of a new firmlinked directory pkg."
Apple doesn't do this stuff lightly. A search of WWDC sessions doesn't mention /pkg specifically, but I'd bet it's related to this: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2026/206/?time=6...
Transcript (@ timestamp) for convenience:
> 10:33 > Next, packages. macOS 27 now gives IT administrators the option to remove all the files and directories that are installed by a declarative management package, when the package configuration itself is removed. > 10:48 > This ensures unwanted data and files are not left behind on devices when no longer needed.
http://pkgsrc.org/