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Mike Allanson

Dev Setup on macOS

I recently set up a macOS dev machine from scratch. This is my notes on the steps I took.

First steps

Homebrew takes a while to install. Tick through the System Preferences in the meantime.

System Preferences

  • Log in with Apple ID

Appearance

  • Set Appearance to Auto

Desktop & Dock

  • Select Hot Corners... button. Set bottom right to put display to sleep
  • Move dock to left
  • Auto hide and show dock
  • Disable animate opening applications

Control Centre

  • Clock no day of week or date
  • Bluetooth show in menu bar
  • Focus show in menu bar always
  • Spotlight don’t show in menu bar
  • A11y shortcuts show in Control Centre
  • Fast user switching show in Control Centre

Lock Screen

  • Require password 5 seconds after sleep or screen saver

Privacy & Security

  • Turn on FileVault
  • Turn on Firewall
  • Privacy
    • Disable personalised Ads

Trackpad

  • Increase tracking speed until it feels right (6/10).

Keyboard

  • Disable some mission control shortcuts (ctrl + up)
  • Set key repeat to max speed
  • Shortcuts -> Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls

Siri & Spotlight

  • Disable Siri
  • Categories
    • Applications, Calculator, Conversion, Folders, System Settings

System Preferences

  • Set up Touch ID

Init dotfiles

Chezmoi will install my dotfiles, and run a ‘one time’ setup script to install various tools and apps via homebrew.

chezmoi init github.com/m-allanson/dotfiles
chezmoi apply

Chezmoi will also configure some system defaults using another one time setup script.

Terminal

I switched from iTerm2 to WezTerm. WezTerm has a text-based config which I can store as part of my dotfiles. View the config here.

Firefox

  • Set as default browser
  • Set Kagi as default search
  • Disable any sponsored suggestions
  • Open previous windows and tabs when starting
  • Disable ‘confirm before quitting with command+Q’
  • Set Enhanced Tracking Protection to Strict
  • Use 1Password to manage Logins and Passwords
  • Set language to English UK
  • Set mailto links to ‘always ask’
  • Disable ‘save logins and passwords’
  • Enable HTTPS-only
  • Enable DNS over HTTPS, Increased Protection using NextDNS

Extensions

  • 1Password
  • ClearURLs
  • Multi-Account Containers
  • Nitter redirect
  • Privacy Badger
  • uBlock origin

VSCode

  • cocopon Iceberg Theme https://cocopon.github.io/iceberg.vim/
  • cocopon Iceberg Light Theme
  • Night Owl theme
  • Disable telemetry
  • Disable View -> Appearance -> Activity Bar
  • Settings -> Editor: Font family, set to 'MonaspiceAr Nerd Font Propo', Zapfino, Menlo, Monaco, 'Courier New', monospace
  • Move side bar right
  • Move search pane to left
  • Disable minimap

I’ve started using VSCode’s settings sync to keep this in sync across different machines. There are probably other settings and extensions that I’ve not mentioned here.

Other apps

  • Docker (via Docker Desktop)
  • Tableplus
  • DevUtils
  • CleanShot X
  • Sync (sync.com)
  • Grand Perspective
  • ImageOptim
  • VLC
  • Whatsapp
  • Zoom

Most of these can probably be installed via brew these days.

Other system config

Node.js

I use Volta to manage different node / npm / yarn versions. It’s installed as part of the Chezmoi run once script mentioned earlier.

Updates

January 2023

  • Updated settings locations for macOS Sonoma
  • Updated chezmoi instructions
  • Updated browser and code editor details