Dev Setup for macOS and Linux

Here’s a rundown of the tools and applications I use to set up my development environment on both macOS and Linux. These have proven useful in my workflow, but your mileage may vary.

macOS Setup

First thing I do is go to Settings -> Trackpad -> Enable Tap to click.

Package Management

• Homebrew: The go-to package manager for macOS. Pretty much essential. But I am thinking of learning nix for more package management goodness and reproducibility.

Terminal Enhancements

• Oh My Zsh: A framework for managing Zsh configuration. Makes the terminal a bit more user-friendly.
  • Plugins I use:
    • zsh-autosuggestions: Suggests commands as you type based on history and completions.
    • zsh-syntax-highlighting: Provides syntax highlighting for the shell zsh.
    • autojump: A faster way to navigate your filesystem.

Productivity Tools

• Raycast: A launcher that’s more powerful than Spotlight. I use it for quick calculations and most importantly clipboard history. This also has window management, but i am too lazy to switch from rectangle.
• Rectangle: Simple but effective window management app. Have gotten very used to the shortcuts, never looked back even with the latest MacOS window management.
• Notion Calendar: This was Cron earlier. Basically alerts me before my meetings and shows it in the menu bar.

Development Tools

• Docker client: I use OrbStack as a lightweight Docker client. It is super useful on M1 apps. This works fine for 99% of my use cases. The one time I needed some rosetta customization, I had to use the full Docker Desktop.
• Warp: A new terminal app that supports multiple tabs, multiline editing, longer command history. I don’t like that it asks for signup at the start because it is VC driven so 🤷‍♂️. Skill issue on my part.
• Cursor: An IDE with AI capabilities. I am faster with this.

Web Browsing

• Brave browser: A Chromium-based browser with built-in ad-blocking and tracking prevention.

Utilities

• Mos App: I use an external mouse and the scrolling direction is reversed. This app fixes that, along with some smoothening of the scrolling.

Command Line Tools

• bat: A cat clone with syntax highlighting. Nice for quick file views.
• fzf: Fuzzy finder for the command line. Great for searching through command history.

Note-taking

• Notes: Apple Notes, Google Docs, Cursor

Python Environment

• uv: A fast Python package installer and virtual environment manager. I recently switched to this from miniconda, which I used previously. So far, uv seems faster and more lightweight, but I’m still in the process of fully transitioning.

Some useful mac shortcuts

• fn + delete to delete a word backwards (windows delete key)
• Press fn twice to get emoji picker
• cmd + shift + . to view hidden files in finder
• cmd + shift + 3 to take a screenshot of the entire screen and save it to the desktop
• ctrl + cmd + shift + 3 to take a screenshot of the entire screen and copy it to the clipboard
• cmd + shift + 4 to take a screenshot of the selected window
• ctrl + cmd + shift + 4 to take a screenshot of the selected window and copy it to the clipboard
• cmd + shift + 5 to screen record via Quicktime
• cmd + ~ to switch between multiple windows of the same app
• cmd + tab to switch between apps

Some useful chrome shortcuts

• cmd + option + arrow-keys to switch between tabs in browser (Chrome based ig)
• cmd + shift + t to reopen the last closed tab

Some useful Cursor/VSCode shortcuts (MacOS)

• cmd + shift + p to bring up the command palette
• cmd + p to bring up the file navigator
• cmd + shift + e to explore the file system
• cmd + shift + f to search for files
• cmd + shift + d to open debugger
• If you want to move up/down the current line or selection, alt + arrow-keys works.
• cmd + left-arrow to move to the beginning of the line
• cmd + right-arrow to move to the end of the line
• cmd + delete to delete the entire line to the left of the cursor
• Select a word and do cmd + d to find occurrences of the word in the file. Match for case and exactness on the tooltip that appears.
• Multiple cursors can be done using cmd + d or option + click.

Linux Setup

Terminal Enhancements

• Oh My Zsh: Same setup as on macOS.
  • Plugins: zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-syntax-highlighting, autojump

Docker Installation

For Linux, I typically install Docker using the official script:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh

Nvidia drivers

Command to install the recommended drivers:

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

Will add more here soon.

Some useful terminal shortcuts (Linux)

• ctrl + a to move to the beginning of the line
• ctrl + e to move to the end of the line
• ctrl + l to clear the screen
• ctrl + u to delete the entire line
• ctrl + w to delete the word before the cursor
• ctrl + r to search through command history
• ctrl + shift + r to reverse search through command history and execute
• ctrl + c to cancel the current command
• ctrl + shift + c to copy the current selection (cmd + c on macOS)
• ctrl + shift + v to paste the copied text (cmd + v on macOS)
• ctrl + z to suspend the current command
• ctrl + d to exit the current shell