macOS Setup

Everyone does this differently to suite their needs but this is what I do on my machine as a base. You may not need all the options below.

Properly setting Hostname

sudo scutil --set HostName computer_name
sudo scutil --set LocalHostName computer_name
sudo scutil --set ComputerName computer_name
dscacheutil -flushcache

Check for updates

Click Apple menu (  ) → About This Mac → Software Update.

System and preferences

• Click Apple menu (  ) → System Preferences

Desktop & Screen Saver

Pick a screensaver then enable Hot Corners for bottom right to start screensaver

Dock

• Adjust size and Position as you find convenient. I make mine smaller and leave it at the bottom.
• check Minimize windows into application icon
• un-check Show recent applications in Dock

Security & Privacy

Firewall:

• Click the Firewall tab.
• Click the Lock button, then enter an administrator name and password.
• Click Turn On Firewall.

Disk Encryption

• Click the FileVault tab.
• Click the Lock button, then enter an administrator name and password.
• Click Turn On FileVault.
• Follow the instructions.

Trackpad

• Click the Point & click tab.
• Change Secondary click to Right corner
• Enable Tap to click with one finger
• Adjust Tracking speed as needed

Finder

• Finder → Preferences
  • Change New finder window show to open in your Home Directory
  • Sidebar:
    • Check Home
    • Uncheck Recent Tags
• View
  • Click Show Path Bar
    • Click Show Status Bar
    • Click Show View Options:
      • Set Always open in column view
      • Set Browse in column view
        • Set Group by to Kind
        • Set Sort by to Name

Menubar

Locate and click on the battery icon in the menu bar and enable Show Percentage

Screenshots

Change the default folder for screenshots

mkdir -p /path/to/screenshots/

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /path/to/screenshots/ && killall SystemUIServer

Homebrew

The first thing you want to do is install Homebrew

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

Coding Fonts

Pick one of the following fonts to use, these include ligatures for powerlevel10k. I use Hack.

brew install font-fira-code-nerd-font
brew install font-fira-mono-nerd-font
brew install font-hack-nerd-font
brew install font-roboto-mono-nerd-font
brew install font-ubuntu-mono-nerd-font

iTerm2

iTerm2 is a replacement for terminal and the successor to iTerm.

brew install iterm2

Oh My Zsh

Oh My Zsh is an open source, community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration.

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Change your shell

The zsh install should ask you to and take care of this, but just in case:

chsh -s $(which zsh)

Start a new shell instance

source ~/.zshrc

Upgrading Oh My Zsh

upgrade_oh_my_zsh

Powerlevel10k

I use this utility to add extra features to my shell, see here for instructions.

Oh My Zsh Installation

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k

Set ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k" in ~/.zshrc

Useful Utilities

A list of some other utils I use or may want to check out in the future. For a listing of all casks available from the cask, click here to see the list.

zsh Plugins

Additional plugins can be found at zsh-users and Oh My Zsh

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-completions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:=~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-completions

Add the plugins to your .zshrc file like so:

# zsh Plugins
plugins=(
  [...]
  zsh-autosuggestions
  zsh-completions
  zsh-syntax-highlighting
)

tree

brew install tree

vim

brew install vim

htop

brew install htop

angry-ip-scanner

• Angry IP Scanner - Open-source, cross-platform network scanner

brew install angry-ip-scanner

appcleaner

• AppCleaner - uninstall unwanted apps

brew install appcleaner

atom

• Atom - Cross-platform text editor by Github

brew install atom

balenaetcher

• Etcher - Tool to flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives

brew install balenaetcher

codeexpander

• CodeExpande - Tool to store code snippets, similar to TextExpander.

brew install codeexpander

code-notes

• Code Notes - Code snippet & gist manager

brew install code-notes

colorpicker-materialdesign

• Material Design Color Picker - a custom color picker plugin for macOS that allows users to navigate color swatches and select colors from Google’s Material Design Color Palette.

brew install colorpicker-materialdesign

lastpass

!!! note I’m currently looking for a replacement as Lastpass is going in a direction I don’t like. Will update once I find a good one.

• LastPass - Cross-platform password manager

brew install lastpass

rectangle

• Rectangle - Move and resize windows using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas

brew install rectangle

skitch

• Skitch - Screen capture tool with mark up and sharing features

brew install skitch

slack

• Slack - Team communication and collaboration software

brew install slack

teamviewer

• TeamViewer - Remote access and connectivity software focused on security

brew install teamviewer

tor-browser

• Tor Browser - Web browser focusing on security

brew install tor-browser

visual-studio-code

• Microsoft Visual Studio Code - Microsoft’s Open-source code editor

brew install visual-studio-code

Links to other stuffs

• Giphy - create your own gifs.