Setting up OS X

When setting up a new Mac (or when reinstalling your OS), the setup scripts in this repository may come in handy.

Don't blindly copy and use my settings

A dedicated chapter for a simple warning. Fork this repository, inspect the files and change them to fit your needs.

Download and install Mac apps

First of all, download the Mac apps you like to use. The scripts in this repository assume that the following apps are installed:

• Google Chrome
• iTerm 2
• Sublime Text 3

You don't have to use any of these apps (obviously), just make sure to edit the scripts to your needs.

Homebrew formulae

Homebrew is a package manager for OS X. In short: it lets you install stuff you need that Apple didn't. Install Homebrew by pasting the following at a Terminal prompt:

$ /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Next, you may want to install some common Homebrew formulae. brew.sh will do that for you. Run it by executing ./brew.sh. My brew install script will install some useful CLI tools (like coreutils and findutils) upgrade bash, and install some tools I prefer to use (Vim, screen, php71).

OS X defaults and settings

There are many settings and little tweaks that make an operating system feel like home. osx.sh sets it up in a couple of seconds. Apart from general UI/UX settings, osx.sh contains settings for:

• Trackpad, mouse and other input methods
• Screen and screen saver
• Finder
• Dock, dashboard and hot corners
• Safari and WebKit
• Terminal and iTerm2
• Time Machine
• Activity Monitor
• Default Mac apps, like Address Book, Calendar
• Mac App Store
• Google Chrome and Google Chrome Canary

You can execute the script by running ./osx.sh.

Color schemes

I love having consistent color schemes across apps. A color scheme that I really appreciate, is the one that comes with PHPStorm: Darcula. It's a dark theme, nice on the eyes, and overall just good looking:

I've created Darcula themes for Terminal, iTerm and Sublime Text 3. You can install the themes by running the corresponding install script (shell.sh and sublime.sh).

Terminal.app and iTerm

My Terminal.app runs on Bash and is configured by (some of) my dotfiles. Check out .bash_prompt for my prompt configuration.

My iTerm 2 runs on Zsh and OhMyZsh instead of Bash. The prompt is configured by a custom Zsh theme and depends on powerline fonts to work well.

To install:

1. Clone into powerline/fonts and run install.sh to install all fonts
2. Make sure you've installed OhMyZsh (Zsh itself comes preloaded on OS X)
3. Run ./zsh.sh to install the theme
4. Finally, tell Zsh to use the newly installed theme by setting ZSH_THEME="Darcula" in .zshrc

If you changed the default Zsh installation directory, you should manually install the theme.

Sublime Text 3

Executing sublime.sh will copy some default (and sane) preferences and install the Darcula theme.