Yeah, my macOS set-up is simple enough it's not worth scripting or otherwise saving.

Use the GUI settings panel to make CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl. Takes maybe 10 seconds.

Use same to make dock auto-hide. 10 seconds if I'm slow about it.

Install Homebrew. Maybe 15 seconds hands-on and a couple minutes in the background.

Use Homebrew to install spectacle. Less than 5 seconds hands-on time, done less than a minute later.

Start Spectacle and use its preferences panel to set it to start on boot. Maybe 15 seconds.

Remove all the pinned programs on the dock. 60-90 seconds.

The last one's the only part I've considered scripting, but since I only do it once every couple years at most, it's not really worth it.

Once I'm past a Mac's initial "welcome to Mac" flow and on the actual desktop, I'm only about 5 minutes (not all of it actively doing things) from having a comfortable environment set up and being all ready to install project-specific tools, as needed.

If I ever switch back to Linux (or FreeBSD, which is more likely at this point) I might go back to versioning and backing up a bunch of config and dot files. I need them, there.

> Use same to make dock auto-hide

Cmd-Opt-D to toggle auto-hiding – I use this one to check if the dock is frozen :)

(Also a great option to rebind: it's a global hotkey so no other app should be using it)

Ha, I hit this by accident a couple times a year, then have to fix it in settings because I can never remember what the combo is.

Just as a sidenote, because I was using Spectacle as well. JFYI: As it is no longer maintained, I switched to Rectangle (https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle) and can highly recommend it.

Yeah, I'm just putting off switching because Spectacle still works, and has never broken or even behaved in a way that seemed weird or less than ideal, even across multiple monitors, with changing screen situations (hiding/un-hiding the dock), et c. It is one of the very few pieces of software I run that has given me precisely zero problems of any kind. Ain't broke, don't fix it, and all that.

> CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl

Another fine specimen, salute!

If it was ESC instead you'd get a +1. ;)

What if I told you that you can have both? For me it's ctrl when I hold it down and use it with another key and esc when I press it briefly. Can be set up on a Mac with Karabiner Elements.

If you told me that, I'd give you the +1. But Karabiner Elements doesn't work on my Arch box.

I have a udev rule that does the ESC mapping, but will have to try harder to see if I can make it do that on Linux.

Mine just does nothing.

Why not Command instead of Ctrl? Isn't that something that you use way more often?

Because I go used to use Emacs binding while on the terminal and VIM bindings for everything else. Ctrl + [ instead of ESC to change modes for me :D

I'm not that commenter but ctrl is my least favourite regularly used key to hit. It's not comfortable to reach with either my pinky or thumb. Command is basically where my thumb rests naturally, it's in prime position.

Yep, cmd is great where it is. If I compare cmd-shortcuts with identical ctrl-shortcuts, with normal key mapping, the ctrl ones strain my hand and pull my fingers away from the home row. The same cmd-based shortcuts do neither of those things. It's one thing Apple got very right, that everyone else is getting wrong.

Yes, this is one of the best decision I made quite a while back. I'm usually asked for ideas and advices on how to setup computers, both technical and non-technical friends and families. I have always suggested putting a little more effort in learning the defaults and getting used to it.

I have even written a short essay, as I found myself repeating the same suggestions many a times. https://notes.oinam.com/digital/apple/

This is where I’ve come to over the years as well. Generally defaults are best unless it’s something you really care about and that makes a big difference to your workflow.

Most configuration stuff doesn’t fit that category - or if it does, it’s best to first work on just caring about it less if possible.

Additional benefit is that defaults are often such that they work well together, often in ways that you might not have foreseen beforehand and thus never would have set up yourself.

> I stick with the defaults as much as possible. Instead of changing the configuration of the computer, I change myself.

This is the worst advice you could give. There are plenty of shitty defaults and default tastes vary from app to app and there's a reason things are customizable.

Customize to your taste throughout your tools and don't let a new tool eat your time.

You can take it even further: stick to the defaults and mainly use command line tools.

Almost every linux box has bash, vim, and the GNU command line tools. If you can become proficient with default config cli tools, you can become proficient on almost any linux box.

I think there's a healthy middle ground here. Endless tweaking of settings tends to be a waste of time, but if you spend hours a day on a computer, you might as well make it comfortable. Some people use no $EDITOR plugins and wear it like a badge of honor, this is pretty silly to me. The few minutes it takes to install and learn about a plugin might save you hundreds on hours in the future.

I guess my personal strategy is to run with the defaults until you find the pain points, and install/configure something to address them. And put them in git repo if possible.

> Some people use no $EDITOR plugins and wear it like a badge of honor, this is pretty silly to me.

I don't use any plugins for PyCharm or IntelliJ, but they're pretty full-featured right out of the box. I certainly don't do it as a badge of honor, that indeed is pretty silly.

But vim is useless without any plugins. Even VSCode is only marginally better than Notepad++ unless you give it the plugins necessary to turn it into an actual IDE and not just a code editor.

> vim is useless without any plugins

It’s not? I mean vim defaults are great, it supports a lot of formats out of the box (indentation, syntax highlighting), it’s ideal for quick edits. Surely if you need an IDE-like functional then it’s not enough (probably) but it is very far from being useless without plugins.

I'm doing the same. In some companies you can't just get ssh to outside world, or download some stuff from github... So I stick to defaults and I try to do development on single machine.

I have a friend who does this. But his reasoning goes one step further. He's usually mentoring people on his team, so he finds it very valuable to be able to not only function quickly on someone else's setup, which is usually the standard, but to give them hints that'll work directly for people unfamiliar with the tools.

This is a great answer if, like you said, you don't set up computers very often. I use mostly defaults in part because I set up computers a couple times a month. Often just for a day does that physical or virtual device live, consuming my configs, but having to manually do it every time would be a pain.

If i have to deal with ancient osx gnu gplv2 utilities, i think I'd go bananas. You have to modify the default settings at some point or your productivity will surely wane in comparison to others. I see your point with some defaults but the purest approach doesn't seem practical either.

Agreed, same thing with basic stuff like color schemes. I just pick one that's auto installed by default with an IDE and stick with it. I'm tired of futzing and installing stuff to get things juuuuust right. Most IDEs come with great defaults.

Yes, this. Custom configurations are a maintenance burden when you change systems. Living with defaults saves time in the long run, usually. Only when I spot an exception to that rule will I install something custom.