Setting Up My New Macbook Pro

By Leeto on Jan 19, 2024
macbook

Setting Up My New Macbook Pro M3

My previous laptop, a 14” Macbook Pro M1 with 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, was the best machine I have ever owned. It ran smoothly and the battery life was really good, especially compared to the previous Intel models. However, over time my development workflows have gotten more resource-intensive and I have been running into limits, especially with the RAM.

When the M3 line of Macbooks was released, I purchased a beast machine with the help of my friend’s employee discount.

  • M3 Max Macbook Pro 14”
    • 96GB RAM
    • 2TB storage

This will help me be more productive, and enable me to explore new areas such as AI (running local LLMs) and Mobile App development.

Initial Steps

1. Clean Slate: Started with a clean install, skipping the Migration Assistant for a fresh beginning.

2. Personalizing Keyboard and Trackpad: Updated keyboard and trackpad settings to match preferred ergonomics.

  • normal scroll direction
  • tap to click

Installing Essential Applications

The following applications were installed to create a productive environment:

  1. Web Browsers:

    • Chrome
    • Firefox
    • Edge
    • Arc
    • Orion

  2. Terminal and Code Editors:

    • Set up iTerm with Xcode developer tools, a customized color scheme,
      • hostname configuration: sudo scutil --set HostName dennym3
    • Visual Studio Code (VS Code) and VS Code Insiders, added to PATH for easy terminal access.

  3. App Store Downloads:

    • Messenger
    • Mattermost
    • XCode
    • Auth for Tesla

  4. Note-Taking and Productivity Tools:

    • Notion
    • Obsidian with self-hosted livesync setup

  5. Communication

  • Teams
  • Zoom
  • Beeper
  • Pulse SMS
  1. Customization
  • BetterTouchTool
  • iStatMenus
  • TopNotch
  • Bartender 5

  1. Other Utilities:

    • Homebrew
    • Postman
    • Warp Terminal
    • Spotify
    • Sublime Text
    • VLC
    • OneDrive
    • Anytype
    • DBeaver
    • Hyper
    • Handbrake
    • qbittorrent
    • Tabby
    • Parsec

    Microsoft Office 2021 downloaded from here.

Development Environment Setup

  1. NodeJS and Package Managers:

    • NodeJS installed from its website.
    • nvm installed: curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash.
    • yarn installed globally: npm install --global yarn.
    • pnpm installed via Homebrew: 
      brew install pnpm

  2. ZSH and Themes:

    • oh-my-zsh installed: 
      sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
    • p10k set up and customized: 
      git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k

  3. NeoVim and LazyVim:

    • NeoVim installed using Homebrew.
    • LazyVim setup: 
      git clone https://github.com/LazyVim/starter ~/.config/nvim
    • LunarVim installed and configured.

  4. Fonts:

    • Development fonts installed: 
      brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts
brew install font-meslo-lg-nerd-font

  5. ZSH Plugins:

    • zsh-syntax-highlighting, zsh-autosuggestions, and web-search plugins installed.
    • Updated plugins in ~/.zshrc.

  6. File Exploration:

    • exa installed for enhanced file listing: 
      brew install exa

  7. Enabling SSH:

    • SSH enabled through System Settings > General > Sharing > Advanced > Remote Login.

Cloning Repositories and Environment Setup

  1. Cloning Necessary Repositories:

    • Necessary repositories cloned from the old computer.

  2. Transferring Environment Variables:

    • Relevant environment variables transferred from the old setup.

  3. Setting Up SSH Keys on VMs:

    • SSH keys added to various VMs.

Personal Tweaks and Customizations

  1. Trackpad
  • trackpad does not register 2-finger force click well.
    • set 2-finger force click in BetterTouchTool but triggering was hard because native 2-finger press overrode it
    • disabled native 2-finger press/tap to right-click
    • set 2-finger press/tap as right-click in BetterTouchTool
  1. Disabling Hold Key for Symbols:
    • Hold key for symbols disabled - interferes with vim: 
      defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
  2. Disable typing shortcuts
    • Keyboard > Input Sources
      • disable
        • correct spelling automatically
        • capitalize words automatically
        • add period with double space
        • use smart quotes

Setting Up for Expo/React Native

For Expo or React Native projects:

  1. Watchman installed: brew install watchman.
  2. Cocoapods installed: sudo gem install cocoapods.
© Copyright 2024 by Leeto.