The Homebrew package manager may be used on Linux and [Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about) 2. Homebrew was formerly referred to as Linuxbrew when running on Linux or WSL. Homebrew does not use any libraries provided by your host system, except *glibc* and *gcc* if they are new enough. Homebrew can install its own current versions of *glibc* and *gcc* for older distributions of Linux.
[Features](#features), [installation instructions](#install) and [requirements](#requirements) are described below. Terminology (e.g. the difference between a Cellar, Tap, Cask and so forth) is [explained in the documentation](Formula-Cookbook.md#homebrew-terminology).
The installation script installs Homebrew to `/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew` using *sudo*. Homebrew does not use *sudo* after installation. Using `/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew` allows the use of most binary packages (bottles) which will not work when installing in e.g. your personal home directory.
Technically, you can install Homebrew wherever you want. However, you shouldn't install outside the default, supported, best prefix. Many things will need to be built from source outside the default prefix. Building from source is slow, energy-inefficient, buggy and unsupported. The main reason Homebrew just works is **because** we use bottles (binary packages) and most of these require using the default prefix. If you decide to use another prefix: don't open any issues, even if you think they are unrelated to your prefix choice. They will be closed without response.
The prefix `/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew` was chosen so that users without admin access can ask an admin to create a `linuxbrew` role account and still benefit from precompiled binaries. If you do not yourself have admin privileges, consider asking your admin staff to create a `linuxbrew` role account for you with home directory set to `/home/linuxbrew`.
Follow the *Next steps* instructions to add Homebrew to your `PATH` and to your bash shell rcfile, either `~/.bashrc` for `bash` or `~/.zshrc` for `zsh`.
If you're using an older distribution of Linux, installing your first package will also install a recent version of *glibc* and *gcc*. Use `brew doctor` to troubleshoot common issues.
Homebrew can run on 32-bit ARM (Raspberry Pi and others) and 64-bit ARM (AArch64), but as they lack binary packages (bottles) they are unsupported. Pull requests are welcome to improve the experience on ARM platforms.
You may need to install your own Ruby using your system package manager, a PPA, or `rbenv/ruby-build` as we no longer distribute a Homebrew Portable Ruby for ARM.
Due to [known issues](https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/8219) with WSL 1, you may experience issues running various executables installed by Homebrew. We recommend you switch to WSL 2 instead.
