Switching to Mac

I had to switch to Mac from Windows for my current job. Its a reasonably painful transition so far :). This post is to be used as memory dump to help me (and perhaps others) with the transition.

First observation is that Intel Mac has the same fan problems as windows laptop :). Got the 16 inch Mac Pro with I9 and the fans are loud even with medium load.

Second is that the Dell thunderbolt dock does not work with Mac. Oh well.

Install git

which is part of xcode for some reason and installation takes for ever

xcode-select --install
git config --global user.name "<your name>"
git config --global user.email "<your email>"

Copy your ssh key to ~/.ssh (or create a new one).

Brew

Install brew as described on https://brew.sh

Terminal

Make it pretty with oh my zsh:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

And install ITerm2.

Install Java

Use SDKMAN as described here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52524112/how-do-i-install-java-on-mac-osx-allowing-version-switching

Java will be installed here: /Users/USER/.sdkman/candidates/java/current

Install Postgresql

brew install postgresql
createuser -s postgres
brew services restart postgresql

Windows app replacement

Install Commander One as Total Commander replacement through Apple store.

Install Rectangle for better window management similar to PowerTools.

Install MonitorControl so you can actually control brightness of an external display :facepalm:

https://github.com/MonitorControl/MonitorControl

Useful shortcuts

Shortcuts on Macbook pro are quite a bit more complex. Instead of two switch buttons Alt+Ctrl on Win, you have Ctrl+Option+Command on Mac. Additionally on Mac with touch bar (my case) you must press fn quite a lot. In Idea the combinations of switches does not make much sense … or I did not yet figure out the various permutations of keys.

Command + Control + Shift + 4 – capture screen to clipboard

Command + ~ – Switch between windows of same app. For example two chrome browsers with different accounts.

Option + left/right – move to Next/previous word

Command + Q – quit

Command + Controll + Q – lock the computer

Command + Option + Escape – Force Quit is hidden in the Apple menu in the top left-hand corner of your screen.

Disable unneeded shortcuts in System preferences / Keyboard / Shortsuts as they are clashing with Intellij Idea.