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swyx
swyx

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at swyx.io

My New Mac Setup (2018-2020)

I have updated my list for 2021 here.

I set up a new Mac for work today. Here's what I did immediately:

You can also diff with this bash function dif() { git diff --color --no-index "$1" "$2" | diff-so-fancy; } or with VSCode code --diff file1.js file2.js.

You can also try https://github.com/dandavison/delta


Other good "new laptop setup" lists:

Top comments (10)

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benjmichel profile image
Benjamin Michel

Thanks! Another tool that's I love is hyperswitch (bahoom.com/hyperswitch) to easily switch between the windows of the same app.

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swyx profile image
swyx

can't you just do "command + `"?

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benjmichel profile image
Benjamin Michel

This shortcut has never worked on my Mac. I thought it was caused by my azerty keyboard layout and I changed the shortcut in my MacOS settings, but it still didn't work.

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swyx profile image
swyx

too bad.

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guneyozsan profile image
Guney Ozsan

"...remap command+Q to literally anything else..."
As a Windows user I don't know how many times I closed all browser windows of my friends trying to make an @ sign which is AltGr+Q in Turkish Q keyboards.

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sunnysingh profile image
Sunny Singh

Thanks for sharing your setup! I didn't know about cursor size, look up & data detectors, and I feel stupid for not realizing there was a path bar in Finder (unless it's a recent addition).

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swyx profile image
swyx

apple picks some bad defaults.

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jwe

I dont get it ...

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niorad profile image
Antonio Radovcic

I'd never have guessed that cmd-q might be an issue, what's your alternative shortcut for that?

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Martin Raag

Thanks. Learned about a few more tools to try out - namely Rocket and Clipy.