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How I Set Up a New Mac

By Manthan Mallikarjun, Published about 3 years ago

Brave

The best combination of Google Chrome's rendering engine and Safari's privacy

https://brave.com/

Missve

I've found it to be the best cross platform email client in comparison to the default app, Spark, and Newton.

https://missiveapp.com/

Cron

The best calendar app that syncs your personal and work calendars. There is unfortunately no mobile app so I use Google Calendar on my phone.

https://cron.com/

AltTab Macos

Makes it so that your cmd + tab cycles through windows instead of entire applications (kind of like on Windows)

https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/

- Open AltTab and give it the permissions it needs

- Make sure "Start at Login" is checked

- Set the command to use cmd + tab and show windows from "All Apps + Visible Spaces + Screen showing AltTab".

- Ensure "Hide apps with no open window" is checked

Raycast

Replaces Spotlight with a much smarter alternative that also supports integrations with third party apps.

https://www.raycast.com/

- Give it whatever permissions it needs

- Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Spotlight and disable "Show Spotlight Search"

- Then go back to Raycast and change the hotkey to cmd + space

Todoist

The best way to manage all of the tasks in your life

https://todoist.com/

MacOS Tweaks

Show Battery %

- Go to System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar > Battery > Show Percentage

Show Bluetooth Quick Settings

- In System Preferences > Bluetooth, enable "Show in menu bar"

Show Volume Quick Setting

- In System Preferences > Sound, enable "Show Sound in menu bar always"

Remove Auto Shuffling of Desktops

By default MacOS changes the order of your desktops based on what you use but thats stupid if you like to keep certain apps in certain desktops

- In System Preferences > Mission Control, uncheck the first option

Sync Google Stuff

I have my contacts on Google so I want to sync that.

- Under System Preferences > Internet Accounts, add Google

- I enable Contacts and disable the rest. I also disable the Calendar, Contacts, and Email from iCloud. I don't sync my email since I use Missive for that, and I don't sync calendars since I use Cron for that..

Enable Auto Hiding

I rarely use the doc, Raycast does most of the heavy lifting for me so I enable auto hiding for some more screen real estate

- Right click the dock and press that button

Show Seconds

Show seconds in the top right

- Go to System Preferences > Doc & Menu Bar > Clock and check "Display time with seconds"

Amethyst (Highly Optional)

If you like tiling WM's then amethyst is probably the easiest to use

https://ianyh.com/amethyst/

Magnet

If you don't know what a tiling WM is then install Magnet instead.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/magnet/id441258766

VSCode

The best text editor for Mac

https://code.visualstudio.com/

Spotify

For music! I've found that their curated radios are much better than Apple Music's.

https://www.spotify.com

Terminal Stuff

Brew

The best CLI tool for mac

https://brew.sh/

(Oh My) ZSH

A much better terminal experience

- Run brew install zsh

- Run the command from here: https://ohmyz.sh

- If either of these steps didnt ask you for your password then run chsh -s /bin/zsh It changes your default shell to ZSH

- Reboot your computer (not required but a good idea)

- Set up ZSH suggestions

  • Follow this: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions/blob/master/INSTALL.md#oh-my-zsh

  • After you update ~/.zshrc, you will have to run source ~/.zshrc to load the changes or restart iterm

  • When you start typing a command, it will suggest one for you and you can press the right arrow key to use that command

- Autojump

  • Follow this: https://github.com/wting/autojump#os-x

  • Add this to your ~/.zshrc: [ -f /usr/local/etc/profile.d/autojump.sh ] && . /usr/local/etc/profile.d/autojump.sh

  • After visiting a bunch of folders you can type j XXXX to jump to a folder. If you have something like ~/Desktop/Program 1 you can now just do j Program 1 and it will go to it for you. NOTE: It will only work if you have CD'ed into that folder at least once AFTER installing autojump

Iterm 2

The best macos terminal

https://iterm2.com/

- Open it, go to Preferences > Profile > Keys. Press "Load Preset" and select Natural Text Editing (https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/293988)

Lazy Git

The easiest way to use git for lazy people like me.

https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit

- Add alias gg='lazygit' to your zshrc.