MacOS¶
These are a couple of notes on how I like to use a Mac with macOS on it, and why I bother.
Those Apple Silicon based Macs are pretty awesome, especially in terms of power-efficiency / battery-life. Additionally, macOS has excellent support for free as well as non-free software, specifically the office-suite. These are the two main reasons for me to use macOS on a Mac.
As far as a proprietary systems goes, then macOS can be comfortable, it get you
started with vim and a decent Terminal.app. However, just remember that
if you want to change anything kernel-wise, then you are stuck. And when you go
down the route of disabling system protection, then macOS quickly becomes
unstable and very annoying.
So, sticking within the provided system sandbox seems like the best use of a mac, for me atleast. Allowing myself the use of things like Yabai, to spend less time moving and resizing windwows.
Settings¶
The stuff below are settings in the macOS Ventura System Settings:
Appearance
Appearance: Dark
Sidebar icon size: Large
Desktop & Dock
Position on Screen: Left
Keyboard
Keyboard Shortcuts -> Modifier Keys
Select keyboard: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Caps Lock key: Control
Keyboard Shortcuts -> Modifier Keys
Select keyboard: USB Keyboard
Caps Lock key: Control
Option key: Command
Command key: Option
Trackpad
Scroll & Zoom -> Natural scrolling: off
Tweaks¶
The tweaks are things which I haven’t found a convenient way to configure
via Settings.app. Howevever, they are still within the functionality of the
macOS sandbox.
Home/End¶
When hitting the physcial Home/End keys on a keyboard, which actually have those keys, then it moves the text-cursor to the begginning / end of the line. Additionally, then shift/move selects text.
Create the file ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict, with the content:
{
"\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfParagraph:; // home
"\UF72B" = moveToEndOfParagraph:; // end
"$\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfParagraphAndModifySelection:; // shift-home
"$\UF72B" = moveToEndOfParagraphAndModifySelection:; // shift-end
"^\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfDocument:; // ctrl-home
"^\UF72B" = moveToEndOfDocument:; // ctrl-end
"^$\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfDocumentAndModifySelection:; // ctrl-shift-home
"^$\UF72B" = moveToEndOfDocumentAndModifySelection:; // ctrl-shift-end
}
Unfortunately, then this does not work for everything… however… better than nothing.
Brew¶
Apple provides an App store, however, it requires logging in with an
Apple-account. Plus, it is a graphical application, I much prefer a
software/package manager in the SHELL.
Thus, I go with the Brew package manager. In addition to providing packages,
then it also provides a service-controller. So, when installing a daemon,
then you can start/stop it via brew services.
There are alternatives, such as macports, similar to the FreeBSD ports collection. However, brew also contains non-free software, which is why I am using MacOS to begin with: better support for non-free software.
The neat thing about brew is that everything I need can be installed using it,
with the exception of Rust, which should be installed via rustup.
Install brew:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Setup PATH:
echo '# Set PATH, MANPATH, etc., for Homebrew.' >> /Users/$USER/.zprofile
echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> /Users/$USER/.zprofile
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
Install Packages:
brew install \
bash \
cdrtools \
clang-format \
docutils \
doxygen \
gcovr \
git \
git-gui \
graphviz \
htop \
koekeishiya/formulae/skhd \
koekeishiya/formulae/yabai \
meson \
moreutils \
mutagen-io/mutagen/mutagen \
mypy \
ncurses \
neovim \
ninja \
pkg-config \
pygments \
readline \
ruby \
sloccount \
sqlite \
sshuttle \
tree \
vim \
wget
Install Casks:
brew install \
1password \
discord \
docker \
element \
firefox \
gimp \
google-chrome \
homebrew/cask-fonts/font-dejavu-sans-mono-nerd-font \
inkscape \
iterm2 \
meld \
microsoft-office \
microsoft-remote-desktop \
openscad \
pycharm \
slack \
spotify \
sublime-text \
todoist \
vlc \
wkhtmltopdf \
zoom
Python¶
A recent Python interpreter comes with macOS, thus no need to grab a newer one
via Brew. However, what is nice, is using pipx to manage Python-based
cli-tools. Thus ensure you run:
pipx ensurepath
Rust¶
Install via untrusted sources:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
setting PATH.
LunarVim¶
macOS comes with vim, which is pretty great! However, much like vim was an
improvement over vi, then the extended neovim is a potential
evolutionary step to the greatest text-editor ever.
Projects such as LunarVim, turns neovim into an IDE.
LV_BRANCH='release-1.2/neovim-0.8' bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lunarvim/lunarvim/fc6873809934917b470bff1b072171879899a36b/utils/installer/install.sh)
iTerm2¶
The Terminal.app is great, however for use with lvim, then better
color-support is needed. Also, iTerm2.app has been the “category-killer”
for Terminal applications on macOS for 10+ years. Thus, when looking to
customize/configuring something, then there is more hits on iTerm2.app over
Terminal.app simply due to its popularity.
iTerm2 -> Settings -> Appearance
General -> Theme: Compact
iTerm2 -> Settings -> Profiles -> Profile Name: Default
General -> Working Directory: Reuse preivous session’s directory
Colors -> Color Presets: Solarized Dark
Colors -> Font: DejaVuSansMono Nerd Font 18
Window Manager¶
Yabai is a tiling window manager, other alternatives include Amethyst, and the
very simple Rectangle.app. I tried out Rectangle.app but got frustrated
as it allows be to position windows, however, it does not automatically manage
their position as a tiling window manager does. When coming from e.g. i3 on
Linux, then it is worth noting that macOS was not built for this, also, it is
very easy to disable window-management for things like Calculator.app and
System Settings.app.
Thus, if yabai is getting in the way, then disable it for certain
applications. Also, it can be completely switched off easily withouth bring
down everything. Thus, it is relatively “safe” to use what it provides, and opt
out when it fails you.
Edit the Yabai configuration vim ~/.yabairc:
#!/usr/bin/env sh
#
# for this to work you must configure sudo such that
# it will be able to run the command without password
#
# see this wiki page for information:
# - https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai/wiki/Installing-yabai-(latest-release)#configure-scripting-addition
#
# yabai -m signal --add event=dock_did_restart action="sudo yabai --load-sa"
# sudo yabai --load-sa
#
yabai -m rule --add app="^Discord$" grid=1:1:0:0:1:1 manage=off
yabai -m rule --add app="^(Calculator|System Settings|System Preferences|Archive Utility)$" manage=off
# global settings
yabai -m config \
mouse_follows_focus off \
focus_follows_mouse off \
window_origin_display default \
window_placement second_child \
window_topmost off \
window_shadow on \
window_animation_duration 0.0 \
window_opacity_duration 0.0 \
active_window_opacity 1.0 \
normal_window_opacity 0.90 \
window_opacity off \
insert_feedback_color 0xffd75f5f \
active_window_border_color 0xff775759 \
normal_window_border_color 0xff555555 \
window_border_width 4 \
window_border_radius 12 \
window_border_blur off \
window_border_hidpi on \
window_border off \
split_ratio 0.50 \
split_type auto \
auto_balance off \
top_padding 12 \
bottom_padding 12 \
left_padding 12 \
right_padding 12 \
window_gap 06 \
layout bsp \
mouse_modifier fn \
mouse_action1 move \
mouse_action2 resize \
mouse_drop_action swap
echo "yabai configuration loaded.."
Edit shortcuts for Yabai by using skhd vim ~/.skhdrc:
alt - left : yabai -m window --focus west
alt - down : yabai -m window --focus south
alt - up : yabai -m window --focus north
alt - right : yabai -m window --focus east
Yabai is controlled via brew-services:
brew services start yabai
Meld¶
Meld is not officially supported on macOS, however, unofficially .dmg
exists and they are installable via brew. However, they are not signed
and thus, not allowed to run on Ventura. Here is an unsafe way to work around
that short-coming:
xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Meld.app/
DS_STORE¶
Do:
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
Note
Does not take effect until after logout/reboot.
cdrtools¶
Using cloud-init tools… images… recall which tool was used here.
Microsoft Office¶
This thing just works, with OneDrive sync and everything with your Microsoft Account. One note, regarding the use of Outlook and Exchange, To utilize this, then first log into Word/Excel/OneDrive, because then the office-suite knows that it is licenced.
Then you can open Outlook, and in “Help”, there is an option “Revert to Legacy”. With this version Exchange is functional.
Short-comings¶
I miss the following tools:
cloud-init
pahole
A native / fast use of Docker and Podman, that is, native containers…
And I miss the i3 setup I have on Debian.