Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sensible macOS Defaults

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 182 posts

Re: Sensible macOS Defaults

#161

Post by zumu »

skunkworker wrote: post #155
zumu wrote: post #153

While we're here, there's a couple things on a mac I haven't been able to figure out how to do, and maybe some of you mac pros can give me answers. 1) Remove the dock (killing the dock automatically restarts it) 2) Remove all desktop icons (Killing Finder accomplishes this, but they reappear as soon as you need to open something in Finder) Stuff like the above is why I greatly prefer Linux.

It's really simple to have no desktop icons on the Mac. Just open the finder settings and under General untick all of the boxes to show on the desktop. Then move everything out of the ~/Desktop folder. It won't have anything on it after that. As for the dock you can set it to auto hide, and change the delay so that it will come up but after N seconds [1]. [1] https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/59556/is-there-a…

I will try the finder changes, but I have my doubts crap won't randomly appear in my ~/Desktop folder automagically.

As for the dock, auto-hiding it doesn't disable it, it just hides it. So it remains visible in mission control, and still has bouncing icons from time to time. It also uses system resources, etc.

Ideally I wouldn't have to hack around these settings and could just turn off both these features, like I could on Snow Leopard.

Re: Sensible macOS Defaults

#162

Post by mguerville »

ttepasse wrote: post #113
aeturnum wrote: post #32

I love that this document takes inscrutable OS X settings and translates them into familiar human-readable settings. I have no idea what "NSGlobalDomain NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode" is, but I understand what "Expand save panel by default" means. However, like other people, I'm not sure that I agree with this particular set of changes. Is there a project somewhere that packages these options into a GUI? I know…

> Is there a project somewhere that packages these options into a GUI? There was: Secrets* was both a website were people aggregated a small database of these options and a MacOS preference pane which displayed these: https://web.archive.org/web/20150515104503/http://secrets.bl... https://blog.taylormcgann.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/sec... (* by the makers of Quicksilver!) Sadly the project stopped updating in 20…

MacPilot seems like what you’re asking for: https://setapp.com/apps/macpilot

Re: Sensible macOS Defaults

#163

Post by Macha »

prvc wrote: post #151
samatman wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among the many differences, if the screen is faulty, one can plug in an external monitor, and: get files off, perform a backup, use the computer , and so on and so forth.

>if the screen is faulty, one can plug in an external monitor You don't need a chime in order to try that.

Its useful to know if it'll work before digging into the box o' cables for usb-c to display port

Re: Sensible macOS Defaults

#164

Post by hk1337 »

Seems kind of weird to put these in a dotfile. They’re settings you run once not settings for a terminal session.

I could see putting it in .macos if that was something the system used on boot to setup your system a particular way.

Re: Sensible macOS Defaults

#165

Post by hk1337 »

gugagore wrote: post #38

I have not found a way to script the `Keyboard Preferences -> Input Sources` settings. I even versioned (in git) a ton of the `.plist` (property list) files in `~/Library/Preferences/` (they are binary files, but one can use `plutil` to get a textual XML representation). I think I arrived at the conclusion that these settings are persisted on a global / system level, and that there was basically no solution. I would…

> (they are binary files, but one can use `plutil` to get a textual XML representation)

You can get a JSON representation now too. Figured that out with Safari bookmarks .webloc. They’re basically plist files and used plutil to convert it to JSON

Re: Sensible macOS Defaults

#167

Post by aranelsurion »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #146
m463 wrote: post #131

When I read this I thought - A kindred spirit: # Disable automatic capitalization as it’s annoying when typing code # Disable smart dashes as they’re annoying when typing code # Disable automatic period substitution as it’s annoying when typing code # Disable smart quotes as they’re annoying when typing code # Disable auto-correct ... but then I saw this - # Allow the App Store to reboot machine on macOS updates I as…

Yeah I saw that, it's basically the status quo on Windows though :( Happens all the time that people return from a break and find their machine decided to reboot. Luckily on Managed PCs you can stop this from happening.

I keep a Windows machine around for mainly games, and this is the very first thing I'd do on a new Windows installation. Run "gpedit.msc", find the "automatic updates" policy and disable everything.

Then it only sends you a notification once in a while, and that's it.

afaik you can do this on Win10 Pro and above.

Re: Sensible macOS Defaults

#168

Post by b0afc375b5 »

m463 wrote: post #131

When I read this I thought - A kindred spirit: # Disable automatic capitalization as it’s annoying when typing code # Disable smart dashes as they’re annoying when typing code # Disable automatic period substitution as it’s annoying when typing code # Disable smart quotes as they’re annoying when typing code # Disable auto-correct ... but then I saw this - # Allow the App Store to reboot machine on macOS updates I as…

I'd like to emphasize the smart quotes. It's terribly awful, at least from my point of view. Copy-pasting code has never been more dreadful.

Re: Sensible macOS Defaults

#169

Post by librarianscott »

ataylor32 wrote: post #144
lnwlebjel wrote: post #138

This is the best one: # Display full POSIX path as Finder window title defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool true I don't know how anyone knows where their stuff is without it.

Hold the command key while clicking the title of the Finder window

Do you mean the collapsed titlebar/toolbar that is the default in Big Sur?

Re: Sensible macOS Defaults

#170

Post by birthday »

artonge wrote: post #12

From the Reader: > Warning: If you want to give these dotfiles a try, you should first fork this repository, review the code, and remove things you don’t want or need. Don’t blindly use my settings unless you know what that entails. Use at your own risk!

This. So many people in the comments complaining that they don't like or agree with the entire list.

Find what you like and use it.

Post reply on HN