How I Get-Set-Go with my MacBook Pro

5 min readApr 19, 2022

I started a new job sometime back and got a brand new, blank-slate MacBook Pro. This is for the first time I was working on Macbook, so I started looking for resources that are deemed essential for a productive setup for developers.

I created a record of my system setup with the hope that it might serve as a helpful guide in others’ initial setup. Before beginning, I would like to mention that I am currently working on macOS Monterey 12.3.1 with Apple M1 Chip.

Set up System Preferences

There are a couple of tweaks that I did before starting the actual setup.

Trackpad

System Preferences > Trackpad > Tap to click
System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options… > Enable dragging

Dock & Menu Bar

System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar

Change position to the Left and make the size of icons Small
Enable automatic hide and show
Disable show recent applications

Security and Privacy

System Preferences > Security & Privacy:

Under General, enable require a password after sleep or screen saver begins to immediately
Enable File Vault

Set The Terminal

The most important place where every developer spends most of the day is over the terminal. Therefore , it’s absolutely essential to get your terminal set up so you can work efficiently.

Homebrew

Homebrew provides a package management system for macOS, enabling you to quickly install and update the tools and libraries that you need. Follow the instructions as stated below

~ cd /opt
~ sudo mkdir homebrew
~ sudo chwon -R $(whoami) /opt/homebrew
~ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

zsh

The Z shell (also known as zsh) is a Unix shell that is built on top of bash (the default shell for macOS) with additional features. It's recommended to use zsh over bash. It's also highly recommended to install a framework with zsh as it makes dealing with configuration, plugins, and themes a lot nicer.

Since Catalina, MacOS has started using zsh as its default shell instead of bash. Still, I think it's better to use a different installation of zsh to not interfere with the system version, so that’s why we install zsh using brew

~ brew install zsh

To make installed zsh as the default shell, we need to do the following,

~ sudo vim /etc/shells

Update /usr/local/bin/zshto /opt/homebrew/bin/zsh

~ chsh -s /opt/homebrew/bin/zsh
~ exec $SHELL

Restart terminal and do echo $SHELL. This should give output as /opt/homebrew/bin/zsh

Setting PATH

To make brew available everywhere, do the following

~ echo ‘export PATH=”/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH”’ >>~/.zshrc

Then, to be able to use brew you need to start a new terminal session. After that you should make sure everything is working by running:

~ brew doctor

If everything is good, you should see no warnings and a message that you are “ready to brew!”.

Oh My Zsh

Oh My Zsh is an open-source, community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration. It comes with a bunch of features out of the box and improves your terminal experience.

Install Oh My Zsh:

~ sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

You can customize your configurations, and add plugins and themes. Though I am happy with the default robbyrussell theme, I have added the following plugins to ~/.zshrc .

plugins=(
     git
     mvn
     macos
     docker-compose
     alias-finder
 )

Please feel free to explore more here

iTerm2

iTerm2 is an open-source replacement for Apple’s Terminal. It’s highly customizable and comes with a lot of useful features.

Installation

Use Homebrew to download and install:

~ brew install iterm2

Customization :

System-wide terminal accessible via a hotkey on macOS

Go to Iterm2 Preferences (⌘ +,)
Go to the Keys tab, and click on the Create a Dedicated Hotkey Window.
In the panel that opens up, check the Double-tab key checkbox, and press OK.
Congratulations, your hotkey window has now been configured and can be toggled on and off by double-pressing the Control key!
In order to open terminal windows or tabs using the previously used location, go to the Profiles tab, select the Hotkey Window profile, select the General tab, and in the Working Directory section, click on Reuse previous session’s directory.
Play with the settings in other tabs to customize your terminal more.

Github SSH keys

New computer, new SSH keys. Follow the Github instructions so you don’t have to type in your credentials ever again.

Note that, if you would like to configure multiple GitHub accounts with different ssh keys, please follow this link.

Did you know you can automatically ignore files in every git repo on your computer? Put them in .gitignore_global and never have to fuss with .DS_Store in your .gitignore again. I put .idea in mine as well, since my editor of choice generates profiles in every repo.

Other Apps

These are some of the other apps which I use more often. Following is the command to install all in one go.

~ brew install --cask \
  visual-studio-code \
  google-chrome \
  firefox \
  docker \
  discord \
  spotify \
  notion \
  sublime-merge-dev \
  intellij-idea \

Please don’t use brew to install java . Use SDKMAN

SDKMAN is a tool for managing parallel versions of multiple software development kits on most Unix-based systems. It provides a convenient command-line interface (CLI) and API for installing, switching, removing, and listing candidates. To install, follow the steps :

Open a new terminal and enter:

~ curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash

Follow the instructions on-screen to complete the installation. Next, open a new terminal or enter:

~ source "$HOME/.sdkman/bin/sdkman-init.sh"

Lastly, run the following code snippet to ensure that the installation succeeded:

~ sdk version

Install the latest stable version of JDK by running the following command:

~ sdk install java

To list candidates

~ sdk list

More useful commands and usages can be found at SDKMAN Usage.

Useful Shortcuts

Show Desktop: fn F11
Show/Hide Hidden Files: ⌘ ⇧ .
Permanently Delete Files: ⌥⌘ delete
Lock screen: ⌃⌘ Q
Show or hide the Dock: ⌃ fn F3
Show all windows: ⌃ Arrow-Up
Maximize/Minimize Window: ⌃ ⌘ F
Switch between windows of same app: ⌘ `
Take a screenshot of a window: ⇧⌘ 4 + Space
Spotlight search: ⌘ Space
Character Viewer: ⌃⌘ Space
Quit an app: ⌘ Q
Lock screen: ⌃⌘ Q
Take a screenshot of a window: ⇧⌘ 4 + Space
Complete screenshot: ⇧⌘3

Conclusion

That sums up my current preferences which I consider core for setting up a MacBook Pro for a developer. There are multiple other tools available but the above are the ones that I find indispensable in getting started. I hope it helped speed up your process or gave you ideas for the next time you’re setting one up. I would love to hear about tips on other productivity tools that might be useful.