macOS-setup

This repo contains info on all the apps/tools/settings I use for my macOS setup

What Mac do I have?

I am using a 2020 MacBook Air for on-the-go and a 2024 M4 Mac Mini for at home.

The specs for both machines:

• 2020
  • Apple M1
• 2024
  • Apple M4
• 16GB RAM
• 500GB SSD

Read more about these Mac machines here:

• 2020
• 2024

OS Settings

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

Desktop

I disable the Stage Manager and Widget features

• 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 -> Yes
  • Advanced -> When performing a search -> Search the current folder
• View
  • Show Status Bar
  • Show Path Bar

Dock

I don't use the Dock at all. It takes up screen space, and I can use Alfred 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 -> Right
    • 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.

brew install --cask 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 to install everything else we need.

Window Management

I use aerospace to move and resize windows using keyboard shortcuts.

Fluid and seamless window management is key to being productive while coding.

brew install --cask nikitabobko/tap/aerospace

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.

brew install alt-tab

Menu Bar Utilities

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".

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

Other Apps I Use Daily

• Musescore - Open-source sheet music app
• discord - Messaging / Community
• vlc - I use VLC to watch videos instead of the built in QuickTime.
• 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:

musescore
discord
vlc
figma
visual-studio-code
sublime-text

xargs brew install < apps.txt

Terminal

I prefer ghostty because:

• Lots of customization options
• Fast
• Shaders and background options

Checkout their documentation for more info on what Ghostty can do: Ghostty Docs

brew install Ghostty

Once installed, launch it and customize the settings to your liking. My preferred settings can be found in my dotfiles

Shell

Mac comes with zsh as the default shell.

As 'zsh' is POSIX compatible, and supports plugins. I find it familiar and convenient to use.

To see what shell is currently your default, run:

echo $SHELL

Customizing zsh with .zshrc

I have a custom .zshrc with all of my custom settings and plugins including a customized prompt (using starship), aliases, colors and more.

I store my .zshrc file on github here so I can copy it over to any machine I'm setting up.

Commands used by my .zshrc file

• fortune - print a random quote / story / joke / poem.
• cowsay - use a cowfile to say a random fortune
• cmatrix - CMatrix is based on the screensaver from The Matrix website. It shows text flying in and out in a terminal like as seen in "The Matrix" movie.

brew install cmatrix
brew install fortune
brew install cowsay

Install the latest version of git

We can use brew to install the latest version of git:

git --version
brew install git

Open a new tab / window to start using the latest version:

git --version

Configure git with your name / email and preferred editor:

git config --global user.name kayleebeyene

git config --global user.email kaylee@null.computer

git config --global core.editor nvim

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

NeoVim

NeoVim is my preferred code editor.

You can view all of my NeoVim settings / plugins here

brew install neovim