Set up a Mac in 2024 for Power Users and Developers

In this video CJ walks you through his Macbook setup. He covers OS settings, essential productivity apps, terminal setup, zsh settings, VS Code setup and VS Code Extensions. Whether you're brand new to a mac or have been using one for years, you will likely find something useful in this video.
View all of the links to the apps I install and commands I run here: github.com/CodingGarden/mac-s...
View all of my VS Code settings and extensions here: github.com/CodingGarden/vscod...
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:56 What Macbook did I get?
00:01:14 Desktop Settings
00:02:18 Dock Settings
00:03:44 Finder Settings
00:07:01 Quick Launcher - RayCast
00:08:20 RayCast Setup and Overview
00:10:34 Homebrew
00:13:18 RayCast Homebrew Plugin
00:14:12 Window Management - Rectangle
00:16:04 App Switching - Alt-tab
00:17:20 Menu Bar Utility - Hidden Bar
00:18:30 Menu Bar Stats
00:21:26 Menu Bar Calendar - itsycal
00:22:10 Break Timer - Time Out
00:23:37 Homebrew Cask Versions
00:24:30 Install Firefox Developer Edition
00:25:12 Firefox Settings
00:28:21 Useful Browser Extensions
00:31:05 Privacy Focused Browser Extensions
00:32:30 Firefox Layout
00:33:29 Other Apps I use
00:35:06 Install Docker Desktop
00:35:41 oh my zsh setup
00:38:37 iterm settings
00:41:09 oh my zsh configuration
00:42:46 Set up git SSH key
00:44:49 dotfiles setup
00:45:42 CLI Tools I use
00:46:29 Install Node.js with nvm
00:47:37 Useful npm global commands
00:48:33 VS Code
00:49:32 Install VS Code Extensions
00:50:33 Local Project Setup
00:51:15 Load VS Code Settings
00:52:04 VS Code Layout
00:53:29 Useful VS Code Settings
00:54:50 Useful VS Code Extensions
00:58:15 Other VS Code Extensions
00:59:19 Thanks!
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[@syntaxfm]

00:00:56 What Macbook did I get? 00:01:14 Desktop Settings 00:02:18 Dock Settings 00:03:44 Finder Settings 00:07:01 Quick Launcher - RayCast 00:08:20 RayCast Setup and Overview 00:10:34 Homebrew 00:13:18 RayCast Homebrew Plugin 00:14:12 Window Management - Rectangle 00:16:04 App Switching - Alt-tab 00:17:20 Menu Bar Utility - Hidden Bar 00:18:30 Menu Bar Stats 00:21:26 Menu Bar Calendar - itsycal 00:22:10 Break Timer - Time Out 00:23:37 Homebrew Cask Versions 00:24:30 Install Firefox Developer Edition 00:25:12 Firefox Settings 00:28:21 Useful Browser Extensions 00:31:05 Privacy Focused Browser Extensions 00:32:30 Firefox Layout 00:33:29 Other Apps I use 00:35:06 Install Docker Desktop 00:35:41 oh my zsh setup 00:38:37 iterm settings 00:41:09 oh my zsh configuration 00:42:46 Set up git SSH key 00:44:49 dotfiles setup 00:45:42 CLI Tools I use 00:46:29 Install Node.js with nvm 00:47:37 Useful npm global commands 00:48:33 VS Code 00:49:32 Install VS Code Extensions 00:50:33 Local Project Setup 00:51:15 Load VS Code Settings 00:52:04 VS Code Layout 00:53:29 Useful VS Code Settings 00:54:50 Useful VS Code Extensions 00:58:15 Other VS Code Extensions 00:59:19 Thanks!

[@iamqqu]

If i had to rank all the mac setup videos i have watched through the years, this ranks way up at number one. CJ is a natural teacher. Took the time to explain everything and not just skim through it. Really great work.

[@alexliebhaber3109]

20 mins in, and I've already downloaded 3 new apps! Wonderful video!

[@leojclarke]

What a killer video. So indepth but super high production value and veeery watchable. Timestamps are on point. I'm sure to visit and revisit this video many times in the future.

[@88onage]

Ah, the memories. The Mac setup streams were how I originally discovered CJ a few years ago. Awesome stuff 🚀

[@EBay_Dev]

Spectacular! The best mac setup I've ever seen

[@jaumfcn]

First video of yours I've seen and I loved your vibe. Thanks for bringing it all together in such a light and cool way! Regardless the development stack, my setup is very similar and I would like to say that it is really worth giving Arc Browser and Warp Terminal a chance.

[@aleksrutar8839]

My Macs are all reconfigured and a bit "hacked", but you just made it super clean! Well done Mr. CJ!

[@williamcameron83]

41:06 seamlessly done! Love it! Great video, very useful and A LOT to take in so thanks for the timestamps to jump about.

[@PRonYouTube]

Thanks so much for sharing your setup! This was one of the better videos I've seen :) The iTerm "Natural Text Editing" key mappings was super helpful!

[@StLolek]

Nice video CJ! Well presented a lot of useful stuff 🎉

[@ohLyln]

Honestly great video! I have been using Mac OS to develop on for like 5 years and I didn’t know about some of these cool things. In particular; Raycast + the brew extension (just set it up last night) as well as stats tool is quite nice. Thanks for all this, very comprehensive!

[@anitalakhadze5358]

I was watching this in incognito mode, but the video was so good and detailed and useful, that I specifically got back to non-incognito to give it a like 😄Thank you! ❤

[@nanoadam415]

This is SUCH an amazing video! This is actually incredible.

[@FrontEndDevz]

One of the best and most useful video that I've seen this year!

[@rjborba]

Amazing! It is hard to find someone with a very similar setup that I have. Yours gave me some ideas of improvement. Thank you so much 🎉

[@ryanorr1]

This was an incredible resource. Thanks for putting this together!

[@theseus_dev]

This is the best set up video for mac 2024 hands down. I also use raycast and love using the create links as shortcuts

[@jimbennett834]

This was an excellent video for a newbie to mac OS. Thank you.

[@yeboije]

just got a mac for the first time and watched so many MacBook set up videos and this is by far the best! thanks!

[@Levelord92]

congrats with purchase!

[@DenzilLewis]

Super helpful stuff, CJ. Learned a lot. Thanks!

[@ryanbeall5124]

Well done my man, just enough detail

[@joshuaa446]

One of the biggest lessons from this well thought through video I have gained is to take notes on setting up your pc/mac/linux work environment. Thank you for the details put into editing this educational video. For me settings and configurations is an ongoing process. I am considering a Password protected note file. Layer the note files with sub folders if necessary. I like how a lot of configurations in coding can be scripted and stored in a git repo.

[@TheShoobah]

Great video, I will get a brand new Mac next week for my new job, so this was really useful 👌

[@GayanSanjeewaKarunarathne]

Wow this is a Gold mine. Thanks CJ and Syntax!

[@sadikrajabasha2938]

You're amazing, cj. I have implemented all the settings and its supercool. Post importing vs code settings, I couldn't toggle between editor and Primary side bar using shortcut "command +0" & "command+1"

[@Jamrawk88]

Awesome video man. Was extremely helpful and informative. You sold me on raycast

[@nwokobia]

Outstanding walkthrough. Thank you!

[@ilyivanov5803]

Nice to see you in Syntax team. Thanks for the video, as I am new Mac user it helped a lot :)

[@AleksandarT10]

Great video, we need more content like this!

[@olympic-realty]

Awesome! Great "Mac Tweak Tools" :--) Thank you, CJ!

[@Levelord92]

Ooooh CJ, nice to see you, I set up my MAC twice already based on your vid from Code Garden

[@gutterball237]

My life splits in half: before and after discovering iTerm's natural language setting 🤯 Thanks so much for this vid, amazing stuff!

[@Dedseq]

lots of the stuff mentioned here I'm already using, Though, there were things I didn't even know were there. Really good in-depth video !!

[@bleakCode]

CJ is awesome. I followed your twitch streams back in the day.

[@Positive-rc5gl]

Amazing guide, so much great info. Thank you!

[@WestonPreisingGuitar]

What a useful video. Thank you so much!

[@cis84muz]

This movie completely changed my life as software developer 🤯 Thank you 🙏

[@zacharyflynn77]

this is an awesome video. thank you cj

[@AlfredEssa]

Fantastic. A lot of nice tips and presented superbly. Much appreciated.

[@Furki4_4]

Thanks for the awesome tutorial. I've been using Windows since born and it was painful to install apps or switching between tabs on mac. I love RayCast and all other apps you suggested!

[@bukki007]

This is a thorough video. Love it

[@PauloVFSC]

Thanks a lot for the menu bar tools!

[@KarimAktouf]

Thanks for the great tips, my Mac feels better now :)

[@DorinVancea]

Awesome tips, thanks CJ

[@reginaldcurtis7538]

Thank you for this awesome video!

[@sanyamjain7229]

handsdown the best setup video.

[@ho_artem]

Thanks for the tabless. It's a great Momentum alternative.

[@rconr007]

Thank thank thank you. This was awesome 🎊

[@qnoox]

long time cj fan here to support 👍☕️🙏⭐️🥳

[@twitchizle]

watching this from my few hours old MacBook love you cj

[@podroznik2214]

Wow! This is so helpful

[@just3obad]

Great video. Thanks a lot for the tips. Learned a lot.

[@Chaithzx]

1:36 OMG, I resonate so much with you on this.

[@jamieterrell75]

Awesome video, thanks for sharing.

[@kreatur_]

An hour setup video is wild lmao. Well done

[@painkillerO8]

If I watched KZbin video from the start to the end, it means I like it and became new subscriber.

[@13zebras]

Mac user since literally 1984. Great content CJ. I even learned a thing or two. Three things: 1. Fish shell. 2. Kitty terminal. 3. Volume for the recording was way too low. I had to boost it quite a bit to hear it. Then blew my ears out when my Mac spoke the time. ;)

[@antonpodkur3520]

Awesome video! Good job man!

[@Sezar_SZ]

Great Video! Lots of useful stuff!

[@niksingh710]

I am a Linux nerd mate and yeah i do these stuff by myself.............. but sooner or later have to use a mac for work so knowing these helps a lot. btw at first instance i was like WTF 1 hr but you covered everything that is relevant and important. Thanks for the video.

[@edarioq]

Lots of useful info thanks! I would add TMUX to the list, the speed at which you can manipulate the terminal without using the mouse is much faster with tmux.

[@RolandSchlosser]

Awesome video!!

[@JamWebH]

congratulation very nice video for mac user and dev

[@arthurhjorth1490]

Friend, this was actually useful. I've been so frustrated for so long with search defaulting to "This Mac" instead the obvious "This location". Having to click and "see properties" to see how much space is left on my HD is annoying. Having to Cmd + Up to go up through the folder tree to see where I am... all those little things that were low key annoying all the time. Thank you! You're also charming AF.

[@aydogang]

FYI: Raycast Window Management plugin can replace Rectangle with the same shortcuts.

[@kigazon]

Yes, he also said that. He just prefers Rectangle.

[@EdwardBordenave]

Great Video, I opted for Warp terminal rather than iTerm but followed just about everything else

[@adamsDevArt]

Thanks! amazing content!

[@newby2224]

thank you for a great vid….you are very good at teaching…thx

[@armaandhanji7151]

Awesome video, love it! 👏

[@martantoine9977]

impressive thanks

[@D0ct0rPepper]

This is awesome! Thanks

[@imurashka]

Very useful video! Thanks

[@user-hj5mz4lz1x]

First install on a fresh mac for me: spotify. I like to work in music :)

[@berrywhite2415]

this vid is awesome thanks

[@Alex-bv6wy]

thanks so much. Awesome video.

[@micaelviana]

46:50, you can do "brew install nvm" and enable the nvm extension inside the .zshrc file, "plugins=(nvm)" so OHMYZSH will gonna detect nvm automatically.

[@vitalikda]

Amazing video! 👍

[@alrikschorling8046]

Super useful! Would definitely recommend Warp over iTerm though

[@Marcus_613]

Awesome video, I don't need to see more to subscribe. Thank you for sharing. Do you have any particular reason for using VSCode rather than VSCodium ? Are there any extension working on VSCode and not on VSCodium ?

[@milad8436]

Such a Great content

[@Fullflexno]

Super ocol to see cj here!

[@m4u939]

THANKS

[@ArionKosturi]

Great video! 👏

[@cant_sleeeep]

chad guy. i use these apps too. so convenient

[@someone9493]

Many many thanks ♥

[@testautomate6307]

Thank you for the fantastic instructional video! I've largely followed your guidance with my MacBook 13. Just a quick query: if I upgrade to a newer MacBook in the future, will I need to reinstall and configure everything, or is there an application that can automate this process for me?

[@Zoddex]

I don't use terminal a lot but the iterm tips were pretty awesome!

[@arrchix]

Raycast already has built in window manager plugin, do you think that Rectangle is better? Great video, lots of inspiration for settings change.

[@donofriov]

natural text editing in iterm2 😲what a game changer

[@Operaatoors]

If talking about the shell, I like to extend my zsh with Starship (Cross shell prompt). But if talking about different kind of shell - I haven’t yet turned that way, but nushell is something worth checking out.

[@repentandliveholy]

Thank you very much!!! Great!

[@Arctect]

very cool and useful

[@pnddesign]

Thank you for this tuts !! Question about gpg. I tried to use it to have my commits signed within github but installation is a pain and there is always something bugging so I don't use it. Would be great to cover under the section, Set up git SSH key. Cheers!

[@hvenry]

Love it!

[@octavian0704]

Great stuff mate, I'd recommend you trying warp as your terminal.

[@syntaxfm]

Wes and Scott use warp, but there is def a concern around needing an account for a term.

[@fkingerd]

great video dude, a lot of cool stuff i love it. Keep it up!

[@Cerroski]

As a new Mac user coming from Windows... I can't thank you enough!

[@shiuli6161]

39:24 dude, thanks a lot!!!

[@moritzre6325]

Insaneeeeeee Bro