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+#+title: macOS: Testing Out A New OS
+#+date: 2021-02-19
+#+description: A retrospective on my migration from Linux to macOS.
+#+filetags: :apple:
+
+* 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.
+
+#+caption: 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 [[https://elementary.io/][ElementaryOS]], 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.
+
+#+caption: 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
+[[https://developer.apple.com/xcode/][Xcode]], Apple's suite of
+development tools.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+sudo xcode-select -r
+#+end_src
+
+#+begin_src sh
+sudo xcode-select --install
+#+end_src
+
+* Homebrew
+Next up is to install [[https://brew.sh][Homebrew]], a nifty package
+manager for macOS.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
+#+end_src
+
+I ran into a permission error when installing Homebrew:
+
+#+begin_src 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
+#+end_src
+
+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.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(brew --prefix)/*
+#+end_src
+
+Next up is to ensure Homebrew is updated and cleaned.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+brew update
+#+end_src
+
+#+begin_src sh
+brew cleanup
+#+end_src
+
+* iTerm2
+Now that I've installed the basic utilities for development, I moved
+onto installing iTerm2, a much better terminal than the default.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+brew install --cask iterm2
+#+end_src
+
+I also used the =Make iTerm2 Default Term= and
+=Install Shell Integration= options in the iTerm2 application menu to
+make sure I don't run into any issues later on with different terminals.
+
+We will also install =zsh= so we can use it in iTerm2.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+brew install zsh
+#+end_src
+
+* Oh-My-Zsh
+I've shown the great aspects of [[https://ohmyz.sh][Oh My Zsh]] in other
+blog posts, so I'll skip over that speech for now. Simply install it and
+run an update.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
+#+end_src
+
+#+begin_src sh
+omz update
+#+end_src
+
+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.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+open ~/.zshrc
+#+end_src
+
+The third section of this file should contain a line like the code
+below. Change that theme to
+[[https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Themes][any theme you want]],
+save the file, and exit.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+ZSH_THEME="af-magic"
+#+end_src
+
+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
+[[https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions][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.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
+#+end_src
+
+#+begin_src sh
+open ~/.zshrc
+#+end_src
+
+#+begin_src sh
+# Scroll down the script and edit this line to add zsh-autosuggestions
+plugins=(git zsh-autosuggestions)
+#+end_src
+
+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.