make-macos-sane

A series of steps and/or scripts to modify MacOS into a usable OS for a developer coming from Windows.

Steps:

Trackpad Adjustments

1. Go to Settings > Trackpad and
   • Go to Point and Click and enable Tap to click.
   • Go to Scoll & Zoom and turn off Natural scrolling
   • Go to More Gestures and
     • Turn off Swipe Between Pages
     • Set Swipe Between Full Screen Applications to Swipe Left or Right with Four Fingers
2. Go to Settings > Desktop & Dock and change Click wallpaper to reveal desktop to Only in Stage Manager

Finder Adjustments

3. Run this command in a terminal so that you can see hidden files and folders in Finder: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true; killall Finder;
4. Open Finder, and on the menu bar, hit Finder > Settings > Advanced > Show all filename extensions

Sudo with TouchID

5. To enable TouchID with Sudo, open /etc/pam.d/. Copy sudo_local.template to sudo_local. Edit it using sudo nano sudo_local. Uncomment the line auth sufficient pam_tid.so. Close and save with ctrl + x, then y, then Enter.This will now tell sudo to use TouchId instead of a password.

Homebrew

6. Sign up for an Apple developer account and download the latest version of XCode before installing brew.
7. Install Homebrew so that you can install the other stuff you need

Keyboard & More Trackpad Adjustments

8. Install middleclick by artginzburg so that the trackpad supports three finger middleclick.
   • brew install --cask middleclick
   • Run it, follow the prompt to give it access in settings, then in the top right click it to enable Tap to click
9. Install Karibiner Elements so that you can remap your command / control / option / global keys to match a windows keyboard layout.
   • brew install --cask karabiner-elements
   • Run it, give it the accessibility permissions it needs.
   • Open its Settings, Open Misc, Enable Multi-touch Extension, use the extension to disable the bottom ~15% and right ~10% of your trackpad.
   • -Either- Manually adjust the settings:
     • Run it, follow the prompts to give access in settings.
     • Then on the internal / MacOS keyboards, switch:
       • fn (globe) to left_command,
       • left_command to left_option,
       • left_control to left_command
       • left_option to left_control
       • right_command to right_option
       • right_option to right_command
     • And on Windows keyboards, switch:
       • left_command to left_control
       • left_control to left_command
       • right_control to right_command
   • -Either- Automatically import the settings:
     • Import this json settings file by going to Maintenance > Misc > Export & Import > Open config folder and replacing the config file here, though note that these configs are tied to specific keyboard models so you may want to first change one key on each of your keyboards, export the config to get the model and vendor ids, and then copy them into this premade config and reimport.

Windowing Adjustments

10. Install rectangle so that windows can be snapped
    • brew install --cask rectangle
    • Run it, follow the prompt to give access in settings and disable MacOS window snapping.
    • -Either- Manually adjust the settings:
      • Open rectangle's settings and select Launch on login and Check for updates automatically
      • Then remap all the default combos. They're set to Control + Option + X which is the closest you'll get to Windows, but since you switched your command and control key you'll need to switch them here.
    • -Either- Automatically import the settings:
      • Import this settings json file by going to Settings > Import and selecting it.

Monitor Control

11. Install BetterDisplay (free) or Lunar (paid) so that you can control internal / external monitor brightness.
    • brew install --cask betterdisplay
    • brew install --cask lunar
    • Run them and give them the accessibility settings they need.

Screen Recording Location

12. Hit Command + Shift + 5 to open the screen capture screen, at the bottom of the screen hit Options and change the default Save To location to a dedicated screenshot folder.

Dock Adjustments

13. Under system Settings > Dock set position to Left.
14. Install DockDoor so that you can have window previews in your dock and window switcher.
    • brew install --cask dockdoor
    • Run it, give it the accessibility settings it needs, then open it's settings and
      • Under General
        • Select Launch DockDoor at login
        • Under Performance Profiles select Snappy
        • Under Preview Quality Profiles select Lightweight`
      • Under Appearance
        • Set Preview Width to 240px
        • Set Spacing Scale to 0.8
        • Set Position Dock Preview Controls to At top - Title on left, controls on right
        • Under Traffic Light Buttons in Previews disable Quit and Disable dock styling on traffic light buttons
        • Set Max Columns (Left/Right Dock) to 1.
15. Remove all the Apple programs from the taskbar except Finder
16. Open Finder, find your screenshot folder, right click on it, add to dock, then right click the dock icon and change View content as to Fan and Sort by to Date Modified so that you have access to screenshots easily

Misc

17. Use Safari to download a better browser

• Go to Settings > Default Web Browser and change it to your new one

18. Install noTunes, so that Apple doesn't launch Apple Music whenever you hit the media buttons.
    • brew install --cask notunes
    • Run noTunes
    • Go to your system Settings > Login Items & Extensions and add noTunes to your Login Items.

Dev Tooling

19. Install the Cascadia Code font so that you can have font ligatures.
    • -Either- Manually
      • Unzip > Open TTF folder > Double click Cascadia Code.ttf. You may then have to restart your computer before it shows up in font book.
    • -Either- Automatically
      • brew install --cask font-cascadia-code
20. Install ghostty so that your terminal is GPU rendered
    • Configure Cascadia code font by opening Ghostty's settings / config and including this line: font-family = Cascadia Code.
21. Install git
    • brew install git
    • run git config --global user.name "<USERNAME>"
    • run git config --global user.email "<[email protected]>"
22. Install git credential manager
    • brew install --cask git-credential-manager
23. Install VS Code or VS Codium.
    • install using brew so that it adds code to the terminal:
      • brew install --cask visual-studio-code
      • -or- brew install --cask vscodium
    • Enable Cascadia Code & ligature support in Settings > Font > Font Family, and Settings > Enable Ligatures
    • Go to Settings > Open Files In New Window and set to On.

Node.js

20. Install NVM to manage Node versions.
    • Use the installation script they provide.

Java

22. Install sdkman to manage Java versions.
    • Use the installation script they provide.

Ruby

24. Install ruby-build and rbenv to manage Ruby versions.
    • brew install ruby-build
    • brew install rbenv