New Install Checklist (MacOS Sonoma 14.3.1)

Legend

• 💰 - App has a one-time upfront purchase cost
• 💸 - App has a freemium pricing model with paid features
• ♻️ - App has a recurring subscription pricing model
• ✨ - Highly-recommended app or preference
• 🍺 - A homebrew package is available for this app
• 🛄 - App only available on the Mac App Store
• 🍎 - App only available on Apple Silicon Macs

Prelude - Setup Wizard & Settings

• Setup Wizard
  • Sign-in with Apple ID
  • Setup Touch ID
  • Enable Find My
  • Disable Siri
• Software Updates
  • Install Xcode CLI tools

    xcode-select --install

  • Install all available system updates ^✨
• System Settings & Hardware Changes
  • Mouse
    • Disable mouse acceleration ^✨
      • Old approach

        defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1

      • New for Sonoma
        • System Settings -> Mouse -> Advanced -> Turn Pointer Acceleration Off
    • Disable natural scrolling
      • System Settings -> Mouse -> Natural Scrolling
  • Keyboard
    • Remap screenshot and screen capture shortcuts
      • System Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Screenshots
  • Dock
    • Auto-hide the Dock ^✨
      • System Settings -> Desktop & Dock -> Automatically hide and show the Dock

Essentials

• Install HomeBrew ^✨

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

• Install your preferred web browser
  • I use Brave [🍺: brave-browser]
  • See Browser Config & Extensions if you want to take care of this right away
• Install 1Password desktop client [🍺: 1password] ^♻️✨
• Install Magnet ^🛄💰✨
  • Configure keybinds according to monitor config and preference
• Install PasteBot [🍺: pastebot] ^🛄💰✨
• Install Bartender [🍺: bartender] ^🛄💰✨
• Install Logi Options+
• Install Kap[🍺: kap] ^✨
• Install a terminal emulator of choice
  • Warp [🍺: warp]
  • iTerm2 [🍺: iterm2]
  • Alacritty [🍺: alacritty] ^✨
• Install oh-my-zsh ^✨

  sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

  • Install and configure the Powerlevel10k theme ^✨

Browser Config & Extensions

• Install the 1Password browser extension✨
• Install the Vue Devtools extension
• Install Imagus ^✨
• Enable browser sync/sign-in if available
• Set the default search engine to your preference
• Disable browser password saving prompts
• Enable extensions for incognito/privacy mode
• Configure devtools to open in a new window
• Setup work and personal profiles browsers with multi-profile support ^✨

Email, Calendar, and Contacts

• Setup email accounts and calendars in System Settings
  • System Settings -> Internet Accounts -> Add Acccount...
• Install a third-party email client if you prefer (I just use the vanilla Mail app)
  • Spark ^💸♻️
  • Canary Mail ^{🛄💸♻️}
  • Outlook (Installed with the O365 suite)
• Install Fantastical^♻️✨

Core Tools

• Install Jetbrains Toolbox [🍺: jetbrains-toolbox] ^✨
  • Install Webstorm ^♻️✨
  • Install Rider ^♻️✨
  • Install Pycharm ^✨
    • Community edition is free for personal use
  • Install DataGrip ^♻️✨
  • Enable settings sync for all IDE's ^✨
• Install neovim ^✨
  • This editor can be configured to your heart's content. If you are not yet familiar with vim/neovim but are interested in learning, The Primeagen has a fantastic series on YouTube dedicated to learning and configuring neovim
  • If you are already familiar with configuring neovim, LunarVim is a nice IDE layer that is very similar to Spacemacs.
  • If aren't quite comfortable with jumping to a terminal-based editor, you can still start learning Vim motions with a plugin.
    • For Jetbrains Products, use IdeaVim
    • For VSCode, use VSCodeVim
• Install the .NET SDK
  • .NET 8 (LTS, Stable) [🍺: dotnet]^✨
• Install pyenv [🍺: pyenv] ^✨
  • Follow the setup instructions closely, this needs a moderate amount of configuration.
• Install Node Version Manager (NVM) [🍺: nvm] ^✨
  • Install the latest Node LTS version ^✨

    nvm install --lts

  • Install and use the latest Node release

    nvm install <version>

    nvm use <version>

• Install and enable pnpm ^✨
  • Install the latest version of Corepack

    npm install --global corepack@latest

  • Enable PNPM

    corepack enable pnpm

  • NOTE: Homebrew provides a formulae for pnpm; DO NOT USE THIS. It prevents you from pinning pnpm versions in projects with corepack use pnpm@<version> in projects, which is very helpful for maintaining reproduceable builds.
• Install Azure Data Studio [🍺: azure-data-studio]
  • Install your preferred extensions
• Install Azure Storage Explorer [🍺: microsoft-azure-storage-explorer]
• Install VSCode [🍺: visual-studio-code] ^✨
  • Install your preferred extensions
• Install PostMan [🍺: postman] ^{💸♻️✨}
• Install GitKraken [🍺: gitkraken] ^♻️✨

Communication

• Install Slack [🍺: slack] ^💸♻️
• Install Microsoft Teams [🍺: microsoft-teams]
• Install Telegram Desktop [🍺: telegram-desktop] ^{💸♻️✨}
• Install Discord [🍺: discord] ^💸♻️

Media

• Install Spotify [🍺: spotify] ^💸♻️
• Install SpotMenu [🍺: spotmenu] ^✨
• Install Overcast ^{🛄🍎💸♻️✨}
• Install iina [🍺: iina] ^✨

Personalization

• Install Fresco ^🛄✨

Maker Utilities

• Install BalenaEtcher [🍺: balenaetcher]
• Install Raspberry Pi Imager [🍺: raspberry-pi-imager]
• Install PrusaSlicer [🍺: prusaslicer] ^✨
• Install Shapr3D [🍺: shapr3d] ^♻️✨

Additional Utilities

• Install Cyberduck ^✨
• Install Parallels [🍺: parallels] ^♻️
• Install Parsec [🍺: parsec] ^💸♻️
• Install Calcbot ^🛄💰✨

Install every brew package in one command

brew install brave-browser 1password pastebot bartender kap warp iterm2 alacritty jetbrains-toolbox dotnet pyenv nvm azure-data-studio microsoft-azure-storage-explorer visual-studio-code postman gitkraken slack microsoft-teams telegram-desktop discord spotify spotmenu iina balenaetcher raspberry-pi-imager prusaslicer shapr3d parallels