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+date = 2021-02-19
+title = "macOS: Testing Out a New OS"
+description = ""
+draft = false
++++
+
+# Diving into macOS
+
+After spending nearly 15 years working with Windows and 8 years on
+Linux, I have experienced macOS for the first time. By chance, my spouse
+happened to buy a new MacBook and gifted me their 2013 model. Of course,
+I still consider my Linux desktop to be my daily driver and keep Windows
+around for gaming needs, but over the past week I\'ve found myself using
+the MacBook more and more for things that don\'t require gaming specs or
+advanced dev tools.
+
+# Initial Thoughts
+
+Before I move on to the technical aspects of my set-up, I want to take
+some time and express my thoughts on the overall OS.
+
+![macOS
+Desktop](https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20210219-macos-testing-out-a-new-os/macos-desktop.png)
+
+As expected, the initial computer setup is a breeze with Mac\'s guided
+GUI installer.
+
+The desktop itself reminds me of GNOME more than anything else I\'ve
+seen: even Pantheon from [ElementaryOS](https://elementary.io/), which
+people commonly refer to as the closest Linux distro to macOS. The
+desktop toolbar is great and far surpasses the utility of the GNOME
+toolbar due to the fact that the extensions and icons *actually work*. I
+launch macOS and immediately see my shortcuts for Tresorit, Bitwarden,
+and Mullvad pop up as the computer loads.
+
+Even further, the app dock is very useful and will be yet another
+familiarity for GNOME users. I know many people like panels instead of
+docks, but I\'ve always found docks to have a more pleasing UI. However,
+I had to disable the \"Show recent applications in Dock\" preference; I
+can\'t stand items taking up precious screen space if I\'m not currently
+using them. On that same note, it\'s taking me some time to get use to
+the fact that I have to manually quit an app or else it will still stay
+open/active in the dock, even if I\'ve closed out all windows for that
+app (e.g. Firefox).
+
+Overall, I\'m having a lot of fun and for users who spend a large
+majority of their time performing basic tasks like web browsing,
+writing, watching media, etc., macOS is a fantastic option.
+
+The rest of this post explains the technicalities of how I set up my CLI
+environment to make me feel more at-home, similar to the environments I
+set up on Fedora, Ubuntu, etc.
+
+# Making it Feel Like Home
+
+If you\'re someone who uses Linux primarily, no doubt your first thought
+when booting macOS will be the same as mine was: \"Where is the terminal
+and how do I set up my favorite utilities?\"
+
+Luckily, macOS hasn\'t completely hidden away the development tools from
+the average user. You can easily find the Terminal app in the Launchpad
+area, but it\'s probably not what you\'re used to. I was surprised (and
+happy) to see that the default shell is `zsh`, the shell I
+use on all of my Linux distros. However, the commands are not the same -
+even the ones you may think are native to the shell. Commands like
+`dir` do not exist, so other native commands like
+`ls -la` or `pwd` are more useful here.
+
+With only a few minutes of installing and tweaking a few packages, I was
+able to recreate a terminal environment that I feel very comfortable
+using. See the image below for a preview of the iTerm2 app with a split
+view between my macOS desktop shell and an SSH session into my server.
+
+![iTerm2](https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20210219-macos-testing-out-a-new-os/iterm2.png)
+
+# Xcode
+
+My first step was to search the web for any hints on how to get
+`zsh` back up to the state I like, with extensions, themes,
+etc. My first step was to install the CLI tools for
+[Xcode](https://developer.apple.com/xcode/), Apple\'s suite of
+development tools.
+
+```sh
+sudo xcode-select -r
+```
+
+```sh
+sudo xcode-select --install
+```
+
+# Homebrew
+
+Next up is to install [Homebrew](https://brew.sh), a nifty package
+manager for macOS.
+
+```sh
+/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
+```
+
+I ran into a permission error when installing Homebrew:
+
+```sh
+Error: Failed to link all completions, docs and manpages:
+    Permission denied @ rb_file_s_symlink - (../../../Homebrew/completions/zsh/_brew, /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_brew)
+Failed during: /usr/local/bin/brew update --force --quiet
+```
+
+I found that the following permission modification worked like a charm.
+However, I noted that some users online discussed the fact that this
+solution may not work if your system has multiple users who use
+Homebrew.
+
+```sh
+sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(brew --prefix)/*
+```
+
+Next up is to ensure Homebrew is updated and cleaned.
+
+```sh
+brew update
+```
+
+```sh
+brew cleanup
+```
+
+# iTerm2
+
+Now that I\'ve installed the basic utilities for development, I moved
+onto installing iTerm2, a much better terminal than the default.
+
+```sh
+brew install --cask iterm2
+```
+
+I also used the `Make iTerm2 Default Term` and
+`Install Shell Integration` options in the iTerm2 application
+menu to make sure I don\'t run into any issues later on with different
+terminals.
+
+We will also install `zsh` so we can use it in iTerm2.
+
+```sh
+brew install zsh
+```
+
+# Oh-My-Zsh
+
+I\'ve shown the great aspects of [Oh My Zsh](https://ohmyz.sh) in other
+blog posts, so I\'ll skip over that speech for now. Simply install it
+and run an update.
+
+```sh
+sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
+```
+
+```sh
+omz update
+```
+
+Finally, restart the iTerm2 application to ensure all changes go into
+effect.
+
+# Oh-My-Zsh Themes
+
+Let\'s change the theme of the terminal to make it a little more
+friendly.
+
+```sh
+open ~/.zshrc
+```
+
+The third section of this file should contain a line like the code
+below. Change that theme to [any theme you
+want](https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Themes), save the file,
+and exit.
+
+```sh
+ZSH_THEME="af-magic"
+```
+
+After changing the `.zshrc` file, you\'ll need to close your
+terminal and re-open it to see the changes. Optionally, just open a new
+tab if you\'re using iTerm2, and you\'ll see the new shell config.
+
+# Oh-My-Zsh Plugins
+
+Of course, my customization of `zsh` would not be complete
+without
+[zsh-autosuggestions](https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions).
+This will bring up commands you\'ve run in the past as you type them.
+For example, if you\'ve run `ssh user@192.168.1.99` before,
+the terminal will show this command as soon as you start typing it (e.g.
+`zsh u`), and you can hit the right arrow to autocomplete the
+command.
+
+```sh
+git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
+```
+
+```sh
+open ~/.zshrc
+```
+
+```sh
+# Scroll down the script and edit this line to add zsh-autosuggestions
+plugins=(git zsh-autosuggestions)
+```
+
+Remember: After changing the `.zshrc` file, you\'ll need to
+close your terminal and re-open it to see the changes. Optionally, just
+open a new tab if you\'re using iTerm2, and you\'ll see the new shell
+config.