software

Fresh macOS setup

These are the apps and utilities I installed to get my machine ready for daily work (almost exclusively iOS development in Xcode).

Dec 19, 2020 by Aleksandar Vacić 3 minute read

Ever since I first got my MacBook Pro in 2006, I have always upgraded macOS versions. Even when switching from one MBP to another. Few times I wanted to start fresh and each time I was too lazy to do it. Getting a desktop machine was finally a good enough incentive.

Essentials

These are essential in a sense: “needed to setup other software”

• 1Password keeps all logins, important notes and software licenses.
• NextDNS stops adware, malware, trackers and other bullshit of the modern online world.
• Dropbox to sync up bills, accounting receipts and some other minor info.
• ForkLift is the simple 2-pane file manager. When setting up new machine, lots of copying and moving around happens.
• Default Folder X is indispensable to quickly get into few folders I often use.

Hardware

• Sensei is amazing app to overview the state of your hardware.
• iStat Menus is the same but smaller (in UI terms).
• Intel Power Gadget helps both of the previous, delivering more information.
• AMD Power Gadget, when your Mac is actually Ryzentosh ;)
• GeekBench to test performance tweaks.

Note for developers: this XcodeBenchmark project is probably the best test of coding/compiling performance of the given machine.

Development

• Xcode 11 and 12, this Fall. Always keep current and previous version in first several months.
• Git Fork is the best Git GUI app for the Mac, which I love for the simplicity of its UI.
• PlistEdit Pro for anything ending with .kext and .plist.
• Kaleidoscope is still the best text comparison. Merging is OK but I would love to see it improved.
• Proxyman to debug networking calls.
• Paw for all possible API needs. This app is pure gem.
• Xclean to clean out Xcode’s derived data folder.
• Xscope to occasionally measure and peek into stuff I develop.
• DevUtils - bunch of small tools in one app.

Important: when transitioning to a new machine, always export Xcode developer profile from old machine, import on new one.

From Mac App Store, I’m getting:

• Apple Developer app
• Transporter app to upload to App Store / Test Flight.
• Microsoft Remote Desktop 10 to access client’s Windows environments.

Now for some command line goodies.

• Setup SSH keys, upload them to GitHub, Bitbucket.
• Setup ~/.gitignore_global (especially useful for those pesky .DS_Store files), add it to ~/.gitconfig.
• Install CocoaPods.
• Install HomeBrew.
• brew install various stuff: sourcery, swiftgen, hugo, carthage, openssl, curl-openssl, youtube-dl etc.

Other apps

• iA Writer is my primary writing tool. These posts are written in it.
• TextMate for general purpose file editing.
• nvAlt to sync with SimpleNote.
• Audio Hijack for podcasting needs.
• Sound Source is amazing audio routing powerhouse among devices and software.
• Screens for Mac, to manage and control growing list of computers around the office and home.
• qBittorrent for obvious usage.
• Sketch to extract stuff from files sent to me by designers.
• Acorn and Pixelmator Pro are general purpose image editors.
• IINA video player. Better than anything out there.
• PDFpen for my very basic PDF authoring needs.

From Mac App Store, I’m getting:

• Spark email client
• Twitterrific for rare tweets from my desktop (iOS is where I procrastinate the most).
• Speedtest to test network speeds, here and there.
• Keynote, Pages and Numbers because they are the best for me, for what they do.
• LilyView is the fastest image viewer for the Mac.
• Soulver for any calculations I may need from time to time.
• Cascadea to create custom CSS styles, mainly to remove bullshit from web sites when I want to save to PDF.
• Microsoft Word/Excel purely to handle documents sent by clients using Windows as their primary OS. And government agencies and institutions.

Few other miscellaneous tweaks:

• Download Additional Tools for Xcode 11 from Apple Developer portal, get Bluetooth Explorer from it and enforce usage of aptX and AAC for Bluetooth headphones (otherwise any audio will sound like hoarse kid in a barrel).