Claude Code starts faster on Ubuntu when installed via Homebrew

26th January 2026

Claude Code starts faster on Ubuntu when installed via Homebrew

I noticed something today: Claude Code starts up noticeably faster on my Ubuntu machine when I install it via Homebrew instead of npm.

So I benchmarked it.

TIL: Homebrew works on Linux

The same Homebrew that macOS developers have used for years runs on Linux too (apparently since February 2019). Nifty.

Here’s the install command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Installing Claude Code

Once Homebrew is set up:

brew install --cask claude-code

The Homebrew formula page has the details.

The benchmarks

I wrote a Python script using pexpect to measure time-to-first-prompt across different configurations. Each configuration got 3 cold/warm paired measurements.

Test system: Ubuntu Linux, Claude Code v2.1.19

The fastest configuration is Homebrew without the --chrome flag: 2010ms warm start. That’s our baseline.

Percentage difference from baseline

Using Homebrew warm start (2010ms) as the baseline:

The worst case is Node.js with --chrome on a cold start: 50% slower than baseline.

What’s causing the difference?

NVM overhead: Node.js via nvm adds ~256ms just for source nvm.sh && nvm use 24. That’s unavoidable if you manage Node versions with nvm.

The --chrome flag: Impact is inconsistent. Sometimes it adds 150ms, sometimes 300ms+. Probably depends on whether Chrome is already running and other system state.

Cold vs warm: Cold starts vary significantly (±200-600ms). Warm starts are much more consistent, especially Homebrew without --chrome (±52ms stddev).

Recommendations

Bottom line

Homebrew is about 16% faster than Node.js for warm starts. If you’re running Claude Code on Linux and the startup lag bothers you, switching to Homebrew is worth it.

The benchmark code is on GitHub if you want to run your own tests.