My Mac Setup

This repo contains info on all the apps / tools / settings I use on my Mac.

• What Macbook do I have?
• OS Settings
  • Desktop
  • Finder
  • Dock
• Quick Launching
• Homebrew
  • Homebrew
  • RayCast Homebrew Plugin
• Window Management
• App Switching
• Menu Bar Utilities
  • Hidden Bar
  • System Stats Widgets
  • Menu Bar Calendar
• Break Timer
• Web Browser
  • Firefox
• Other Apps I Use Daily
  • Docker
• Terminal
  • Shell
    • Load dotfiles
  • Github SSH Setup
    • Other command line tools I use
• Node.js
  • Global Modules
• VS Code

What Macbook do I have?

I am using a 2020 13" Macbook Pro for work and a 2021 14" Macbook Pro for personal stuff.

The specs for both machines:

• 2020
  • Apple M1
• 2021
  • Apple M1 Pro
• 16GB RAM
• 500GB SSD

Read more about these Macbooks here:

• 2020
• 2021

OS Settings

These are my preferred settings for Desktop, Finder and the Dock.

Desktop

I don't like the new Desktop, Stage Manager or Widget features in Sonoma, so I disable them.

• System Preferences
  • Desktop & Dock
    • Desktop & Stage Manager
      • Show Items
        • On Desktop -> uncheck
        • In Stage Manager -> uncheck
      • Click wallpaper to reveal desktop -> Only in Stage Manager
      • Stage Manager -> uncheck
      • Widgets
        • On Desktop -> uncheck
        • In Stage Manager -> uncheck

Finder

• Finder -> Preferences
  • General -> Show these on the desktop -> Select None
    • I try to keep my desktop completely clean.
  • General -> New Finder windows show -> Home Folder
    • I prefer to see my home folder in each new finder window instead of recent documents
  • Advanced -> Show all filename extensions -> Yes
  • Advanced -> Show warning before changing an extension -> No
  • Advanced -> When performing a search -> Search the current folder
• View
  • Show Status Bar
  • Show Path Bar
  • Show Tab Bar

Dock

I don't use the Dock at all. It takes up screen space, and I can use RayCast to launch apps and AltTab to switch between apps. I make the dock as small as possible and auto hide it.

• System Preferences
  • Desktop & Dock
    • Size -> Small as possible
    • Position on screen -> Left
    • Automatically hide and show the Dock -> Yes
    • Animate opening applications -> No
    • Show suggested and recent apps in the Dock -> No

Quick Launching

The built in spotlight search is a bit slow for me and usually has web search results as the default instead of apps or folders on my machine.

I recently switched from Alfred to RayCast. I'm really liking it so far.

brew install raycast

Homebrew

Homebrew

Homebrew allows us to install tools and apps from the command line.

To install it, open up the built in Terminal app and run this command:

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

This will also install the xcode build tools which is needed by many other developer tools.

After Homebrew is done installing, we will use it (via RayCast) to install everything else we need.

RayCast Homebrew Plugin

Install the RayCast Homebrew Plugin so we can easily install formulae and casks directly from RayCast.

Window Management

I know this feature is built in to a lot of other operating systems, but it is not built in to a Mac, so we need an app for it.

RayCast has this feature built in, but I am still using a separate app for this.

I use rectangle to move and resize windows using keyboard shortcuts. I used to use spectacle, but rectangle is more regularly maintained and allows me to use all of the same keyboard shortcuts as spectacle.

I highly recommend installing this and memorizing the keyboard shortcuts. Fluid and seamless window management is key to being productive while coding.

Search for rectangle in RayCast brew search or:

brew install rectangle

App Switching

The built in App switcher only shows application icons, and only shows 1 icon per app regardless of how many windows you have open in that app.

I use an app switcher called AltTab. It shows full window previews, and has an option to show a preview for every open window in all applications (even minimized ones).

I replace the built-in CMD+TAB shortcut with AltTab.

Search for alt-tab in RayCast brew search or:

brew install alt-tab

Menu Bar Utilities

Hidden Bar

If you have several apps running that have menu bar icons, Hidden Bar will let you choose which ones should be hidden after a timeout. This cleans things up if you have a ton of background apps running.

Search for hiddenbar in RayCast brew search or:

brew install hiddenbar

System Stats Widgets

I use stats to see my network traffic, CPU temp / usage and RAM usage at a glance.

In each widget, a key setting to look for is under "widget settings", choose "merge widgets into one".

Search for stats in RayCast brew search or:

brew install stats

Menu Bar Calendar

I like to have a calendar in the menu bar that I can quickly look at. stats does not include one, so I found itsycal.

brew install itsycal

itsycal shows the date, so I hide the date in the system menu bar widget:

• System Preferences
  • Dock & Menu Bar
    • Clock
      • Show Date -> Never
      • Show Day of Week -> No

Break Timer

I use an app called Time Out.

I have it setup to show:

• 10 second micro break every 15 minutes
• 5 minute long break every 60 minutes

There is also a cross platform break timer call Stretchly. I have not used it but a lot of people have recommended it.

Web Browser

Firefox

I use Firefox because it is open source and comes from the Mozilla Foundation, a non profit company that respects my privacy.

I use Firefox Developer Edition. To install this with brew you will need to tap a cask first:

brew tap homebrew/cask-versions

You can then install Firefox Developer Edition with brew:

brew install homebrew/cask-versions/firefox-developer-edition

I use the following extensions to stay productive:

• Tabliss - simple new tab page
• OneTab - consolidate a bunch of open tabs into a shareable list of links
• Dark Reader - turn any site into dark mode

I use the following extensions to protect my privacy while browsing the web:

• Adblocker - uBlock Origin
• Tracker Blocker - Privacy Badger
  • Firefox now includes tracker blocking, but I leave Privacy Badger enabled.
• Decentraleyes
  • Caches CDN links locally and intercepts requests to serve from the cache. Prevents CDNs from tracking you across websites.

Other Apps I Use Daily

• android-file-transfer - Transfer files to / from my android phone
• android-platform-tools - Installs adb without the need for the full android studio.
• keepingyouawake - Prevents my Mac from going to sleep when I'm presenting / live streaming
• discord - Messaging / Community
• vlc - I use VLC to watch videos instead of the built in QuickTime.
• keka - Can extract 7z / rar and other types of archives
• kap - Screen recorder / gif maker
• figma - Image editor
• visual-studio-code - Code Editor
• sublime-text - Note taking (I know there are better apps...)

You can install them in one go by placing them all into a text file and then running brew install:

android-file-transfer
android-platform-tools
keepingyouawake
discord
slack
vlc
keka
kap
time-out
figma
visual-studio-code
sublime-text
insomnia

xargs brew install < apps.txt

Docker

There are multiple results when you search docker within brew. To install Docker desktop:

brew install --cask docker

Terminal

I prefer iTerm2 because:

• Lots of customization options
• Clickable links
• Native OS notifications

There are a lot of options for a terminal replacement, but I've been using iTerm2 for years and it works great for my needs.

Checkout their documentation for more info on what iTerm2 can do: https://iterm2.com/documentation.html

brew install iterm2

Once installed, launch it and customize the settings / preferences to your liking. These are my preferred settings:

• Appearance
  • Theme
    • Minimal
• Profiles
  • Default
    • General -> Working Directory -> Reuse previous session's directory
    • Colors -> Basic Colors -> Foreground -> Lime Green
    • Text -> Font -> Anonymous Pro
      • You can download this font here.
      • I use this font in VS Code as well
    • Text -> Font Size -> 36
      • I use my Macbook to present / teach, so a big font size is important so everyone can see the commands I'm typing
    • Keys -> Key Mappings -> Presets -> Natural Text Editing
      • This allows me to use the keyboard shortcuts I know and love inside of iTerm2

Shell

Mac now comes with zsh as the default shell. I've switched to using this with Oh My Zsh.

Load dotfiles

All my dotfiles are stored on github.

I clone this repo to my machine and copy the files into my home directory.

Github SSH Setup

• Follow this guide to setup an ssh key for github
• Follow this guide to add the ssh key to your github account

Other command line tools I use

• ffmpeg - edit videos from the command line
• imagemagick - edit images from the command line

brew install ffmpeg
brew install imagemagick

Node.js

I use nvm to manage the installed versions of Node.js on my machine. This allows me to easily switch between Node.js versions depending on the project I'm working in.

See installation instructions here.

OR run this command (make sure v0.39.7 is still the latest)

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

Now that nvm is installed, you can install a specific version of node.js and use it:

nvm install 20
nvm use 20
node --version

Global Modules

There are a few global node modules I use a lot:

• lite-server
  • Auto refreshing static file server. Great for working on static apps with no build tools.
• http-server
  • Simple static file server.
• license
  • Auto generate open source license files
• gitignore
  • Auto generate .gitignore files base on the current project type

npm install -g lite-server http-server license gitignore

VS Code

VS Code is my preferred code editor.

You can view all of my VS Code settings / extensions here.