I just upgraded my personal laptop from a 2015 Intel MacBook Pro to an M4 Pro MacBook Pro. I wanted to try keep this new laptop as clean as possible, as you can imagine using the same machine for 10 years means you accrue a lot of files, setups, half started projects and the rest.

The goal of this post is to act as a sort of documentation for myself of the things I have setup on it and where possible the reasoning for it.

Mac System Settings

  • Apple ID: Sign in
  • Keyboard: key repeat = fast, delay until repeat = short
  • Trackpad: 3/4 tracking speed, tap to click, click = light, natural scroll = off
  • Finder: Show Library, show hidden files, show path to dir
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

  • Dock: Hide and show dock, increase size, remove most default apps, align on left of screen.

  • Set background to Steins Gate Background I’ve been using this background since at least 2013 and probably before. If anyone has a higher quality copy of this image please send it on.

Image is a screenshot of my desktop with the mentioned wallpaper and the dock showing

Programming

  • homebrew
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

# add brew to default shell path
echo >> /Users/scottomalley/.zprofile
echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> /Users/scottomalley/.zprofile
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
  • Install iTerm2
brew install --cask iterm2

Set global hotkey CMD + §, Set theme: Solarized Dark.

Set LS Colors export LSCOLORS=gxfxbEaEBxxEhEhBaDaCaD,

Install oh-my-zsh,

Install and configure Powerleve10k

  • Install fnm
brew install --cask fnm
# Add the config to `.zshrc`
eval "$(fnm env --use-on-cd --shell zsh)"
  • Install git
brew install --cask git
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
git config --global user.name "scottomalley"
git config --global user.email <email redacted>
  • IDEs I’ve been trying zex recently, with the reliable VSCode as a backup.
brew install --cask zed
brew install --cask visual-studio-code

Utilities

brew install --cask alfred
brew install --cask bettertouchtool

Chat and Gaming

brew install --cask signal
brew install --cask steam
brew install --cask telegram
brew install --cask discord

This is where I’m leaving it for now. I’ll come back to this and add additional details as I make more changes.