On: Conan – A package manager for C/C++

[thraneh]

I have for some time considered adopting Conan, but I'm comparing to Conda (conda-forge, actually). One of the many benefits of using Conda is that I can rely on users easily being able to install a well-defined environment without requiring root access. How does Conan compare? Is it also a good choice for distributing packages to end-users, or is better tailored to developers and build systems?

[simfoo → thraneh]

In my opinion using Conan to distribute your packages really only makes sense if

- you are a very popular library, in which case you should be in the Conan Center repository

- you are in a controlled environment (company) where you host your own repository and support users with their use of it

In other cases you can still use it to manage your own dependencies but distribute your software via different means.