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Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

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Re: Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

#51
zsh is the default shell on all of my machines because I make it so. I think the tab completions that ohmyzsh provides have saved me on the order of 40 hrs / year, and helped me learn new APIs much easier, since you can see all options without the --help.

If you haven't tried it, I cannot recommend zsh + plugins enough. Only install that you actually use, otherwise it can slow start time a bunch.

Here is a list of the plugins that are available: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/wiki/Plugins

I especially appreciate git+git-extras, web-search (`google my query`), docker, npm, and dirhistory.

Re: Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

#52
post #5

Guess they had to go somewhere as Apple's unwillingness to have GPLv3 code effectively killed off bash updates. Slightly disappointed, but guess they had to go somewhere and zsh is going to be well supported going forward

???

    # change default shell to newer brew'ed bash
    brew install bash && sudo dscl . change /users/$USER UserShell /bin/bash /usr/local/bin/bash

    # change default shell to newer brew'ed zsh
    brew install zsh && sudo dscl . change /users/$USER UserShell /bin/bash /usr/local/bin/zsh

Re: Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

#53

For those wondering why Apple is allergic to GPLv3 code: there is a clause in the license requiring you provide a way to run modified version of the software which would require Apple to let users self sign executables.

So, Homebrew? You can't tell me that Microsoft is able to ship entire distribution's userlands (Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE, and more) through the Windows Store, including all their GPL3 components, and Apple can't figure out how to ship an updated version of base64. If I'm grumbling, it's just because making devops/CI scripts work on Windows and Linux is easier than MacOS and Linux these days because my colleagues run into…

How's using homebrew any of this different than being able to run "base64" and "uuidgen" on Windows? It's not like either of those applications are part of a Windows installation anyway.

Re: Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

#54

For those wondering why Apple is allergic to GPLv3 code: there is a clause in the license requiring you provide a way to run modified version of the software which would require Apple to let users self sign executables.

So, Homebrew? You can't tell me that Microsoft is able to ship entire distribution's userlands (Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE, and more) through the Windows Store, including all their GPL3 components, and Apple can't figure out how to ship an updated version of base64. If I'm grumbling, it's just because making devops/CI scripts work on Windows and Linux is easier than MacOS and Linux these days because my colleagues run into…

That’s probably more a BSD vs GNU issue, to be fair. Mac is based on FreeBSD. GNU/Linux, well... :)

Re: Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

#55

zsh is better than bash in nearly all aspects, at least in my use cases, so this is a great news for me. Is there anything that can be done in bash but not in zsh?

No, I think zsh is strictly more feature rich at the cost of a little more memory (like 1MB maybe). For macs this should be irrelevant.

Re: Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand the licensing issues that well, but if what the poster above you said is true, I wouldn't really want to have to sign software that ships with my computer when it should just run out of the box.

I don't think the prior poster is suggesting that you would have to sign existing software. I believe that they are suggesting that Apple would be required to let you sign your own software if you do choose and give owners the right to opt to have their os trust software they OR Apple signed. There is something that was addressed in the gpl community called tivoization. Tivos dvrs were Linux boxes wherein they shared…

This only seems to be an issue for iOS and its derivatives. You can replace /bin/bash on macOS if you turn SIP off.

Re: Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand the licensing issues that well, but if what the poster above you said is true, I wouldn't really want to have to sign software that ships with my computer when it should just run out of the box.

I don't understand why GPLv3 would be a problem on macOS. On macOS, you can run anything out of the box (depending on security/gatekeeper settings) and you can replace or modify system executables (such as /bin/bash) if you turn off SIP (which is slightly tricky to do but can be done from recovery mode.) Running your own customized /usr/local/bin/bash is easy of course, and package managers like MacPorts or Brew make…

Did you notice how many qualifiers you had there? The trend on macOS is clear: harder and harder to run/do anything that isn't blessed by Apple.

Re: Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, Homebrew? You can't tell me that Microsoft is able to ship entire distribution's userlands (Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE, and more) through the Windows Store, including all their GPL3 components, and Apple can't figure out how to ship an updated version of base64. If I'm grumbling, it's just because making devops/CI scripts work on Windows and Linux is easier than MacOS and Linux these days because my colleagues run into…

That’s probably more a BSD vs GNU issue, to be fair. Mac is based on FreeBSD. GNU/Linux, well... :)

To be exact, FreeBSD and macOS (based on NeXTStep) are both based on BSD, and contribute to each other. FreeBSD came out after NeXTStep was released though...
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