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Ask HN: Moved from Windows to Macbook Pro – How can I get up to speed quickly?

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Ask HN: Moved from Windows to Macbook Pro – How can I get up to speed quickly?

#1

Post by jxm262 »

I've been using Windows for my entire career and was just given a Macbook Pro for my new job. I'm a web developer and was hoping to get some ideas on how to make the transition more easily.

Any tips, shortcuts, plugins, etc.. that can get me up to speed on being super productive? All ideas are welcome :)

Edit: Are there any recommended websites/resources that give an aggregate of information I can find in these responses? It's awesome to get the information here (very much appreciated!), but it would be cool if there was an existing website that gave an overall rundown of all the quick hacks to get devs up and running quickly.

Re: Ask HN: Moved from Windows to Macbook Pro – How can I get up to speed quickly?

#3

Post by Bioto »

Editor:

- Atom

   - Plugins:
     - Sublime-Style-Column-Selection
     - atom-beautiful
     - autocomplete-plus
     - emmet
     - pretty-json
     - (few other plugins for spotify etc...)
Utilities:

    - Grunt
    - Bower
    - Compass
Terminal: I personally use iTerm for all of my terminal needs, this is purely a personal choice.

Re: Ask HN: Moved from Windows to Macbook Pro – How can I get up to speed quickly?

#4

Post by ruigomes »

1password if you're not using any other password organizer app.

Bartender to keep your menu bar items organized.

Flashlight to make Spotlight a bit more powerful.

Flux if you're into it.

Github OSX app is quite nice.

That's what I got from a quick look to my system.

Re: Ask HN: Moved from Windows to Macbook Pro – How can I get up to speed quickly?

#6

Post by autoreleasepool »

Unless you're required to use OS X, you can always install Windows. I would actually recommend this if using OS X really is that outside your comfort zone.

If you need to use OS X, then IMO, the best way to learn is to just start using it for everything. And Google, a lot. If you're familiar with *nix systems, OS X shouldn't be too mind blowing.

If not, I would seriously just boot camp Windows 7 or 8.1. It works flawlessly these days and its a very common practice.

Re: Ask HN: Moved from Windows to Macbook Pro – How can I get up to speed quickly?

#7

Post by thomble »

Get to know Mission Control (formerly Exposé), and configure it to your liking. Personally, I use hot corners to quickly show all running app windows or the desktop at my whim. This is (for me) an perfect replacement for Alt-Tab and the Start Bar in Windows. You can also drag and drop while using Mission Control, which is really handy when dragging between Windows, or to and from the desktop. I think this feature is understated.

Re: Ask HN: Moved from Windows to Macbook Pro – How can I get up to speed quickly?

#8

Post by brudgers »

As others have mentioned, the quickest way to be as productive on a MacBook as previously on a Windows Box is to install and run Windows. Problem solved: get on with developing software. Just researching 'tips and tricks' is already a drag on productivity.

Switching operating systems will typically create a non-trivial learning curve for at least a few weeks anywhere that a person has to perform system administration. Eleswhere, EMACS is EMACS (so to speak).

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