New Mac

New mac, who dis

Bunch of checklists to do when setting up a new Mac. There must be a way to automate this; I just had to work on what I have to make the setting up happen.

Last update: 27 April 2024

Wallpaper from Birmingham Museums Trust via Unsplash

S E C T I O N S

• Tl;dr
• Applications
  • First things first
  • Design
  • Productivity/Communication
  • Dev
  • Mac specific apps
  • Menubar apps
  • Accessibility tools
  • Misc
• OS Configuration
  • Change computer name
  • Change user avatar
  • Keyboard app shortcuts
  • Trackpad configuration
  • Mouse configuration
  • Open Spotify only on the second desktop
• Terminal Configuration

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Tl;dr

This will install apps available in Homebrew. See files to be installed

bash -c "`curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arisacoba/new-mac/master/setup.sh`"

Applications

First things first

• Google Chrome: web browser. If don't like Chrome, get Firefox
  • Vimium: enables Vim key strokes in browser
  • ColorZilla: color picker
  • WhatFont: font inspector ✨Highly recommended
  • ImageSize Info: checks image's size, width, and height on browser
  • Fireshot: takes screenshots of your browser
  • Images under cursor: get the images and background under the cursor, in URL or file
• New wallpaper from Unsplash
• Change user avatar
• Download npm
• Install Homebrew

Design

• Figma: browser-based design and prototype app, with collaboration
  • Nudge amount: 8
  • Enable Use number keys for opacity
• Responsively App: mirrored user-interactions on various devices
• Confectionery browser: Take delicious screenshots of your websites. Cleaner version of Safari and Arc

Productivity/Communication

• Slack
• Notion: powerful note-taking app
• Zoom: video conferencing tool
• Cron (Now, Notion Calendar): next-generation calendar for professionals and teams
• Telegram: instant-messaging app
• (Optional) Viber: instant-messaging app

Dev

• iTerm2: terminal emulator for Mac
• Firefox Developer Edition: web browser with powerful dev tools
  • Vimium
  • Pocket
  • ColorZilla
  • WhatFont
  • Fireshot See extensions' descriptions in #first-things-first
• Responsively App: mirrored user-interactions on various devices
• Fig: Terminal autocomplete (Now called CodeWhisperer)

Mac specific apps

• Raycast: High productivity launcher (Spotlight/Alfred alternative) ✨Highly recommended
• MeetingBar: lists your calendar meetings in menubar (Alternative: Cron calendar) ✨Highly recommended
• Spectacle: easily resize windows in Mac
• Kap: screen recorder for Mac
• Aerial Screensaver: a macOS screensaver that lets you play videos from Apple's tvOS screensaver
• Screen Studio: Beautiful screen recordings. Can't recommend this enough
• MuteKey: Mute your microphone with hotkey

Menubar apps

• Contrast: a WCAG 2.0 standard contrast ratio guide/picker
• Dozer: hides icons in menubar (free)
• Vanilla: hides icons in menubar (with paid version)
• Numi (with fee): minimalist and highly funcitional calculator
• Rocket: emoji picker and shortcut
• RunCat: tracks CPU, disk, memory usage of your computer with running gif/symbol
• Amphetamine: keeps your Mac awake
• Mounty: re-mount write-protected NTFS volumes
• MeetingBar: lists your calendar meetings in menubar (Alternative: Cron Calendar) ✨Highly recommended
• HandMirror: Hand mirror, for Mac ✨ Recommended
• MonitorControl: Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display

Accessibility tools

• Sim Daltonism: Lets you visualize colors as they are perceived with various types of color blindness
• Contrast: a WCAG 2.0 standard contrast ratio guide/picker
• Color contrast analyser (CCA): WCAG 2.0 compliant contrast ratio checker with more information than Contrast
• Stark: Figma plugin for your accessibility audits
• HeadingsMap: List the headings structure of any website

Misc

• Logitech Options: application to configure your logitech devices
• Spotify: only the music and podcast streaming you need
• MacDown: markdown editor
• Obsidian: powerful markdown editor
• Keycastr: keystroke visualiser; useful with Kap ✨New

OS Configuration

Change computer name

System Preferences → Sharing

Change user avatar

System Preferences → User & Groups

Keyboard app shortcuts

System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts

Google Chrome and iTerm2: to lessen the probability of accidental quitting the application

Trackpad configuration

System Preferences → Trackpad

System Preferences → Accessibility → Mouse & Trackpad

Mouse configuration

System Preferences → Mouse

Open Spotify only on the second desktop

On dock → Right-click Spotify → Options → This Desktop

Figma shortcuts

Using LogiOptions+

Terminal Configuration

• Install Homebrew

• Install zsh

    $ brew install zsh
  

• Install oh-my-zsh

• Configure ~/.zshrc

• Install yarn

    brew install yarn
  

• Configure ~/.vimrc

• Install Fast CLI

  npm install --global fast-cli 
  

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Made by @aris_acoba

2021 • [email protected] Updated Jan 2024