I’ve used Mac OS for the last seven years. Here are my notes for setting up a new computer.

• Install Firefox. Sign into sync.
  • In Preferences, General => Language and Appearance => Advanced => set minimum font size to 14 points.
  • To make the tab key only cycle between input forms, not links too, open about:config and add a new entry, accessibility.tabfocus, with value 1 (integer).
• Install 1Password and its browser extension.
• mkdir -p ~/.ssh; cd ~/.ssh; ln -s ~/src/dotfiles/ssh_config config.
  • Download SSH keys from 1Password, unzip them into ~/.ssh.
• mkdir -p ~/src; git clone snarfed/dotfiles; git clone snarfed/misc
• cd; echo .cshrc .emacs .git_excludes .gitconfig .hgrc .inputrc .pypirc .python .sqliterc .subversion .wgetrc | xargs -n 1 -I %% ln -s src/dotfiles/%%
• `chsh
• mkdir -p ~/.hammerspoon; cd ~/.hammerspoon; ln -s ~/src/dotfiles/hammerspoon.lua init.lua
• mkdir -p ~/.config/pip; cd ~/.config/pip; ln -s ~/src/dotfiles/pip.conf

• Install Hammerspoon. (Also see this Verge article on macOS’s new built in tiling support if I ever consider switching.)

  • Install the ClipboardTool spoon.
• Install Karabiner Elements.
  • cd ~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/ foreach f (~/src/misc/karabiner_elements/*) ln -s $f end
  • Import “Change return to control”.
  • Enable all of those in Karabiner settings.
• Set up GnuPG:
  • mkdir -p ~/.gnupg; cd ~/.gnupg; ln -s ~/src/dotfiles/gpg.conf ; ln -s ~/src/dotfiles/gpg-agent.conf
  • Run gpg --list-keys and gpg --list-secret-keys.
  • If they don’t show anything:
    • Run gpg-connect-agent, then keyinfo --list.
    • Check that it shows the keys in ~/.gnupg/private-keys-v1.d.
    • Then run gpg --import ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg.
• Install Homebrew.
• brew install awscli azure-cli bash blueutil colordiff coreutils difft ffmpeg git gnupg go google-cloud-sdk httpd imagemagick java jq librsvg lunar mpg123 node oauth2l openjdk openssl pandoc php pinentry-mac pstree pwgen python rename telnet universal-ctags youtube-dl wdiff wget wp-cli
  • /Applications/Lunar.app/Contents/MacOS/Lunar install-cli
• brew install --cask dehesselle-meld
• brew tap railwaycat/emacsmacport && brew install emacs-mac --with-emacs-sexy-icon --with-librsvg --with-mac-metal --with-native-compilation --with-starter
  (I used Homebrew’s cask of emacsformacosx.com for a long time, but it suddenly got unusably slow when I upgraded to Emacs 29.1. Switching to emacs-mac and --with-native-compilation fixed that.)
• If you need Java 8 (eg for databricks-connect):
  • brew install --cask homebrew/cask-versions/temurin8
  • open /usr/local//Caskroom/temurin8/8*/OpenJDK8U-jdk_x64_mac_hotspot_*.pkg
  • # set JAVA_HOME to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-8.jdk/Contents/Home
• gcloud components install beta cloud-datastore-emulator
  • gcloud auth login
  • gcloud config set project bridgy-federated
• Update System Preferences:
  • Battery, Options, leave Wake for network access on Only on power adapter? Or Never?
  • Trackpad, check Tap to Click, turn off most gestures
  • Accessibility => Pointer Control => Mouse & Trackpad => Trackpad Options => check Enable dragging => Three finger drag
  • General => Dark mode
  • Sound => uncheck Play UI sound effects
  • Keyboard => repeat speed fastest, delay shortest
  • Mission Control => remove keyboard shortcuts
  • Privacy & Security
    • turn on FileVault
    • Privacy => Full Disk Access => add /usr/bin/ruby (for Emacs)
  • Lock screen
    • Require password after 1 hour
  • Desktop & screen saver: no screen saver, Hot corners => upper right put display to sleep
  • Sharing => set hostname, enable Remote Login for SSH
  • Displays => Resolution scaled => one step up from default, Night Shift => on, 10p-6a
  • Internet accounts => iCloud, turn off everything except Find My Mac, remove Game Center
  • Bluetooth => Show in menu bar
  • Notifications -> disable Badge app icon for all apps
  • Users => add Karabiner Elements to login items
• Install WhatsApp. Log in.
• Install Slack. Log in.
• Install Dash.
  • Copy ~/etc/dash.5.license to ~/license.dash-license – Dash requires that exact filename – then load it in preferences.
• Install Google Drive.
  • Make sure I have everything I need off the old computer’s backup in Drive, then delete it.
  • Add folders to sync to Drive: bin books camera_extra docs etc gallery src/snarfed.org. Uncheck the rest.
  • Disable synching Drive to the computer.
• Install and configure MenuMeters.
• Install and configure Meet and Enhancement Suite for Chrome.
• Install the Disable Automatic Gain Control Chrome extension.
  In Chrome, open chrome://flags/, turn Allow WebRTC to adjust the input volume off.
• Pair Bluetooth devices (keyboard, headphones, etc.)
• Install the Gmail More Minimalist userstyle in Stylus in Firefox.
• To remove Firefox’s highlight/glow dot on app tabs with notifications:
  • Open about:config, search for toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets, set it to true.
  • cd 'Library/Application Support/Firefox/profiles/'*.default-release/
  • mkdir -p chrome
  • ln -s ~/src/dotfiles/userChrome.css
• Add 127.0.0.1 my.dev.com to /etc/hosts.
• Tell sudo not to require my password by changing this line in /etc/sudoers: %admin ALL = (ALL) ALL to: %admin ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
• npm install -g @zed-industries/claude-code-acp
• In Emacs:
  • M-x package-list-packages, install agent-shell dash-at-point ess git-link go-mode helm helm-comint lua-mode markdown-mode php-mode rainbow-delimiters rainbow-identifiers yaml-mode
• Run ctags on all repos in ~/src.
• touch ~/s/blogpost.last
• If scrolling eventually gets slow in many apps, eg Emacs, run this (just once): defaults write -g NSAutoFillHeuristicControllerEnabled -bool false defaults write org.gnu.Emacs NSAutoFillHeuristicControllerEnabled -bool false