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New MacBook Setup

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Re: New MacBook Setup

#61

Post by moribvndvs »

I too had a manual checklist like the author and dragged my feet on a proper solution. Now I have a dotfiles repo with a script that installs homebrew, installs everything in a brewfile, then uses chezmoi to do all my system and shell customization. I’ll eventually get it to the point where I can copy and decrypt secrets, RSA keys, and the likes, as well as support multiple uses (work vs personal) and OSes.

The benefit to this is less about new system setup (I don’t buy a new laptop every time the battery goes) and more about synchronizing my settings across machines.

Re: New MacBook Setup

#62

Post by SwiftyBug »

whatever1 wrote: post #6

I find hilarious the fact that we need to buy & install a windowing tool because the native OS window system has been broken for the past 40 years. Can't they just copy what windows and linux are doing?

No doubt that window tiling should be a native feature. But that's not even my biggest gripe with macOS. You simply cannot disable animations. Moving between workspaces is so slow because there is a 300ms transition. There is an accessibility reduced motion settings, but all it does is replace the transition from a slide to a fade in/out. The only solution I could find is to keep all the windows at full width and height in a single workspace. But guess what? CMD+Tab only iterates over the open apps, not their windows. So I need to install yet another third party app to be able to navigate between open windows.

I've always been kind of an Apple fanboy, but I've been recently finding myself in this novel situation where I'm dreaming of a System76 laptop so I can just run PopOS. When I first started using macOS 15 years ago I was all about the slick UI animations. Now I just want an unobtrusive OS that's fast. Heck, I've been even flirting with the idea of not even having a desktop environment at all. A window manager should be enough. Maybe I'm just getting old?

Re: New MacBook Setup

#63

Post by dschuessler »

mattacular wrote: post #40

Other than installing programs, most of this stuff can be automated by writing a shell script. For example: ``` # Remove the auto-hiding Dock delay defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 0 # Remove the animation when hiding/showing the Dock defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0 # Automatically hide and show the Dock defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool true ``` More here:…

You should be able to automate installing programs with homebrew.[0]

[0]: https://brew.sh/

Re: New MacBook Setup

#64

Post by thiht »

wyclif wrote: post #11
whatever1 wrote: post #6

I find hilarious the fact that we need to buy & install a windowing tool because the native OS window system has been broken for the past 40 years. Can't they just copy what windows and linux are doing?

I tend to agree that the functionality you see in Rectangle or Magnet should be native. Window placement shouldn't be a third party app. But whenever I've asked people at Apple about this, the response has been "Well, Apple is historically just very opinionated about window placement and settings." The overall vibe was "Apple knows best."

Being opinionated is good, but at some point you have to realize when you went the wrong path. Window management on macOS is terrible, period. This isn't just force of habit or "just another way to do", it sucks. Even command+tab is terrible, it doesn't even browse all the open windows but the open app, which is a completely irrelevant distinction, I have to install AltTab because of this.

Re: New MacBook Setup

#65

Post by thiht »

mattacular wrote: post #40

Other than installing programs, most of this stuff can be automated by writing a shell script. For example: ``` # Remove the auto-hiding Dock delay defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 0 # Remove the animation when hiding/showing the Dock defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0 # Automatically hide and show the Dock defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool true ``` More here:…

I highly recommend https://macos-defaults.com/ for a list of useful `defaults` commands. I automated almost all my macOS settings thanks to it.

It's not exhaustive but gives a few hints to help you find the settings relevant to you.

Re: New MacBook Setup

#67

Post by kcartlidge »

lawgimenez wrote: post #28

Don’t download Xcode using the App Store.

I don't use Xcode itself, but do use the Xcode command line tools. I've found the simplest way to install them on a new machine is to open a terminal, try and run `git` (which isn't yet installed), and then you're automatically prompted to install the Xcode command line tools (only) and taken through it.

Re: New MacBook Setup

#68

Post by sys_64738 »

whatever1 wrote: post #6

I find hilarious the fact that we need to buy & install a windowing tool because the native OS window system has been broken for the past 40 years. Can't they just copy what windows and linux are doing?

Rectangle is free.

Re: New MacBook Setup

#69

Post by sys_64738 »

dheera wrote: post #36
bouke wrote: post #24

My setup would take weeks to reproduce, I think. So many small tweaks, configuration and extensions that I have accrued over the years. I would dread starting over, which is why I’m very happy with Migration Assistant that helped me migrate to various new machines over 10+ years.

I use Ubuntu Linux for my personal machines, and my entire setup can be reproduced in a fully automated fashion with a script that I maintain, so I can wipe and start fresh pretty much any day I feel like, go have lunch, and come back to a desktop with all my customizations, all the way down to the order in which I have my pinned icons. It's kind of amusing that Mac users have to go through so many GUI hoops to confi…

You can migrate your settings from another macOS install. No need to feel jockular.

Re: New MacBook Setup

#70

Post by danaris »

thiht wrote: post #64
wyclif wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to agree that the functionality you see in Rectangle or Magnet should be native. Window placement shouldn't be a third party app. But whenever I've asked people at Apple about this, the response has been "Well, Apple is historically just very opinionated about window placement and settings." The overall vibe was "Apple knows best."

Being opinionated is good, but at some point you have to realize when you went the wrong path. Window management on macOS is terrible, period. This isn't just force of habit or "just another way to do", it sucks. Even command+tab is terrible, it doesn't even browse all the open windows but the open app, which is a completely irrelevant distinction, I have to install AltTab because of this.

This is your opinion.

The way macOS does window management is internally consistent, and for those of us who have used it for decades, it works perfectly well. Just because Windows chose to do it a different way, and Linux copied Windows because it had a monopoly on the desktop, doesn't mean what macOS is doing is bad.

If you don't like it, you don't have to use macOS. (Or, you can install the exact utilities various people are mentioning to force macOS to act like Windows.)

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