Fresh Machine Setup
I’ve recently got myself a used MacBook Pro that I intend to use for my personal projects. It is a 13-inch Early 2015 model with 16Gb of RAM, an upgraded 1TB disk and a new battery. Since a really good friend was selling it, I got a nice deal.
So I decided not to restore this MacBook from TimeMachine Backup and instead set it up from scratch and document my journey. It has been a while since I’ve done something like this, and I wanted to see if there were things that I don’t really need anymore.
macOS Big Sur
First things first, install a brand new OS. I didn’t get a chance to install the latest version of the OSX on my work MacBook because those machines are controlled by corporate IT. The installation was unremarkable. The only thing I did not turn on post-installation was the Ask Siri functionality. Over the years, I didn’t find Siri to be useful on OSX.
Must-Have Apps
Firefox
In my previous post, I’ve written extensively on why I switched to Firefox. Here I want to write about how I configured the browser. I’ve installed the following add-ons:
- LastPass — a password manager that my family has been using for a few years now. I’ve transitioned kids to manage their passwords using LastPass, which became very relevant this year, with them switching to online education.
- Multi-account containers. A super handy Firefox add-on that lets you build sandbox containers for individual sites. I’ve written about this add-on in my previous post. I’ve started with the following containers:
- Mouseless — a handy add-on that lets you navigate websites without a mouse or trackpad.
- Quick tabs — a powerful add-on that lets you find the right tab without using a mouse or trackpad.
In addition to the above add-ons, I’ve created a separate Firefox profile, which I use exclusively for project collaboration with my friends and partners. Firefox lets you run each profile in a separate instance of the application. Each instance manages its set of add-ons, browser history, preferences, etc. To complete the separation, I’ve created a separate identity in the LastPass for all the project work and associated it with the Firefox project profile.
Communication Apps
I’ve installed my daily communication apps. I find typing on a real keyboard is much faster than doing so on the phone. I installed:
iA Writer
My favourite writing App. It has such a myriad of features that really lets you focus on your writing. I cannot recommend this App highly enough.
Grammarly
Yes, you do have to send the text you write to them, which adds privacy concern. However, if done deliberately, i.e. without letting Grammarly add-on to read everything you type in the browser, I found it improves your writing.
Rectangle
A small utility I use to manage my App windows. Since I have a lot of real estate on my 27-inch monitor, Rectangle allows me to arrange my windows in a neat configuration quickly.
AppZapper
A neat utility that does cleaner uninstall of the Apps. AppZapper removes things like application preferences that are often left on your machine when you do standard drag the App from /Applications to Trash.
KeepingYouAwake
A small utility that lets you control the OSX power settings easily.
Authy
Google Authenticator alternative. It is used to generate MFA tokens. Having in on computer streamlines the access to the sites like AWS or Wealthsimple.
ExpanDrive
Dropbox for everything. I discovered this neat utility when I was looking for a Dropbox type of solution with unlimited storage. I have AWS S3 mounted as a network drive using ExpanDrive, which I use as my family multimedia archive. Oh, and you can mount Dropbox, and Google Drive, and OneDrive too.
Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic
Speaking of multimedia, I am so excited about the 1TB disk. Now I can take my time to edit my travel photos of our epic road trip to the West-coast past summer. Lightroom can have a massive cache.
PopcornTime
An App with a controversial history. But there is content that is not available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ or Crave. A lot of it for us is foreign films and shows. PopcornTime is the most convenient and often the only tool in those cases.
Apple Numbers
Turns out I do need a spreadsheet application. I use it to track family spending by category every month. I’ve been doing this for years. I think it’s time I wrote an App to automate most of it for me.
Conclusion
This is my current minimalistic setup. Of course, it’s missing developer tools. What is your setup? What are your must-have apps?
The next step for me is to install developer tools. That itself will be a long journey, which I will document in a separate post.
Originally published at https://nurlybayev.family.
