Not the parent, but one of the first things I usually install on new Mac is Karabiner-Elements. Absolutely needed if you're using a non-mac keyboard.

What do you use it for? I use a non-Apple keyboard and just switched the options / command key in System Settings.

Say you have a laptop and a PC keyboard and want to have different settings for the internal and the external keyboard

It already lets you have different settings for the internal en external keyboards by default. I use it just like that - vanilla settings on my MacBook built in and for the external keyboard I switch command and option, since it’s a windows keyboard.

I don’t want to be inflammatory, but the amount of baby duck syndrome when people say MacOS and Linux are unusable is crazy. Just try to go vanilla for 2 weeks before you install two dozen utilities.

The settings in System Settings.app are per-keyboard, so you don't need anything external for that.

I use it to map caps lock to a hyper key[1], whether it’s an Apple keyboard or not.

[1] When I hold caps lock, the computer responds as if I’m holding Command + Option + Control + Shift.

In the “Complex modifications” tab, choose “Add rule” and enable “Change caps_lock to command+control+option+shift.”

Newbie Mac user here. I just did what you suggested (I believe it's basically what's suggested in this article: https://9to5mac.com/2016/03/17/how-to-remap-windows-keyboard...), but I don't think Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V works on browsers; I still have to use Alt+C and Alt+V to copy paste when using Chrome/Firefox browsers whereas Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V works in PyCharm.

What am I missing? Thank you in advance for your suggestion/reply!

If you run through that guide I think the intended result is that "Alt-C" is going to be your copypaste. E.g. the keys work in the Mac order: CTRL / OPT (ALT) / COMMAND instead of the Windows order (CTRL / WINDOWS / ALT). So using Alt-C should trigger Copy, matching Mac-user muscle memory.

Perhaps PyCharm is set to Windows keymappings or such?

The mac doesn't use ctrl modifiers to use copy paste. If you remapped Alt/option and windows/command keys on a windows keyboard alt-c & alt-v (i.e. the keys to the right/left of the spacebar) would be recognized as cmd-c and cmd-v on the mac. PyCharm supports a windows and linux keybinding that lets you use ctrl-c and ctrl-v to copy paste but the mac generally uses the cmd key as opposed to the ctrl key. If you want to use ctrl-c and ctrl-v you can remap both of those pretty easily using karabiner elements to cmd-c and cmd-v.

right-option to forward delete on the internal laptop keyboard.

I used to use it to remap capslock to control, but apple has since added that to macOS itself.

I use it to have hybrid modifier and regular keys: if I hold down caps lock like a modifier key and strike another key then it behaves like control. If I tap caps lock like I would a letter key then it behaves like escape.

Return is another hybrid between itself and control (my keyboard does not have a right control key).

Space is another hybrid with a whole lot of bindings when held down. With s it generates space so that I can have key repeat for space (don’t need that often). With hjkl it generates the cursor keys.

Does this help?

Okay that's a great suggestion. I didn't mention it but I do also change my caps lock to an extra escape key.

I use Caps lock as backspace. Go back a webpage, delete last character. Use it all the time. WHO NEEDS TO SHOUT?

for some reason apple think that the backslash and backtick keys are the opposite of what they actually are on british pc keyboards

Rectangle for window management

Rectangle is the only way I can make reasonable use of my external monitor on MacOS.

Yes! I regret the time I spent without Rectangle. Effortlessly managing windows, just throwing them around or between monitors without ever touching the mouse is absolutely priceless.

- BetterTouchTool - Folder Peek

+1 to BetterTouchTool! I'm mostly a keyboard person (typical 'vim' user etc.) but being able to switch tabs using a two-finger tap left and right on the touchpad is so pleasant that I find it worth the investment for BetterTouchTool alone. Configuring this for the different keybindings of different programs flexibly is really great. And it's a one-time payment including fixes and improvements - I've had it for years.

+1, I can't live without BTT on Mac. From keyboard shortcuts, window management, controlling apps, overall customizations, HUD messages, and much, much more.

I wish BTT were multi-OS, so I could just copy the configuration across platforms, instead of having to recreate from scratch (Linux), or not at all (ChromeOS).

Cleanshot X and Swish [2] I really like the gestures that Swish adds.

[1] https://cleanshot.com [2] https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/

Zooom/2 even though it's abandonware.

Alfred, Karabiner-Elements (for the hyper key functionality), Shortcat, TextSniper, Moom, Sublime Text, iTerm 2, my .bash_profile.

These are all apps for which I have long-standing muscle memory. If I use a new computer, I'm still pressing the keys but nothing happens and I have to remember how to do the things the normal way.

Never heard of Shortcat before, it reminds me of that vim shortcut that used to be popular for firefox back in the day. I can see how that would be really powerful.

Each of the features provided by the above apps would also require an app to be installed for Windows, too. Not sure how this can be leveled as an OSX criticism.

I use SizeUp which gives keyboard shortcuts for what Win key + arrow keys accomplishes. There's probably something better but I'm used to it.

There is an open source version of this Rectangle. https://rectangleapp.com

Thanks, prefer this much more to SizeUp.

- Karabiner-Elements, primarily to map caps lock to ctrl when pressed with other keys and escape when pressed alone, although I also like to bind right command + asdfhjkl to cursor movement keys home pgdown pgup end left down up right respectively.

- yabai/skhd for window management

- brew/mas for package management

- linearmouse to disable cursor acceleration, scroll acceleration, and inverted scroll direction for mice while keeping all those things on for trackpads.

There are other things that I install on my Macs, but these are the programs that I use to fix behavior that I find unacceptable. Additionally I maintain a script of about 50 `defaults write ...` commands so that I don't have to dig around in the settings menus of system applications to configure them to behave sanely (show file extensions and paths, don't reorder Spaces, disable autocorrect, etc).

Could you post that script somewhere for us? I'd be interested to see if there are annoyances I'm just living with in there.

Sure. It's definitely opinionated, but perhaps our opinions align!

https://gist.github.com/idle-z/7fc3d3950b02c441ab522a094e5f4...

Thanks!

- MiddleClick to middle click with 3 fingers.

- Touch-Tab to switch apps with 3 fingers.

Both are free and open source.

Easy Move+Resize for moving and resizing windows from anywhere in the window