So I have been a windows user since i was 14. With the tender age of 20 i played around with linux but never switched my main os to linux. Here and there a Linux Server maybe dualboot windows/Mint but never went fully Linux.
Last week I got an 2012 MacBook pro from one of my work colleagues. I was tired not knowing my way around in this OS. So I told him he should give me a total stock Macbook with only the updates to Mojave installed. Thats what he did.
So here I am trying to figure things out on my own. No help from expierenced user. Just me, my curiosity, the internet and this piece of aluminium…
I have to say. This is the most fun I had in about 5 years with a piece of tech apart from games.
The Macbook will be my main working pc for about 3-4 weeks or until i throw it out of the window because i cant figure anything out… we will see
Did anyone of you have any questions? What should I test. What should I install?
btw… cmd+q is my worst enemy atm when i try to login somewhere or write a mail…
macOS already comes with a nice selection of command line tools. I doubt a Windows user is missing much on the macOS userland. No need for homebrew or macports in his case if you ask me. As a Mac user myself all I can suggest for that short period of time is getting used to macOS Aqua and try to not treat is like Windows. When you figure out most of the keyboard shortcuts and how to use Spotlight for your work you get what a macOS workflow can be like. Don’t try to compare it to Windows or GNU/Linux if you want to have a nice experience
This also includes not downloading massive amounts of shareware from the internet just for that sake of playing around. Unlike Windows 10, macOS more or less still behaves predictively and stays under control. That said a lot of things you might think you need third party application from the Internet can be done with the Terminal.
Homebrew is great, I do recommend it if you’re a linux guy and want all the CLI tools. Here’s an unordered list of MacOS programs I love. As this is Macland, expect to have to pay for pretty much everything, nothing is free in the Appletopia.
If you feel the need to change about everything which makes a Mac a Mac I suggest installing Arch Linux. You can better spend your time playing around on that instead of trying to change macOS into something else.
Do you mind telling me what’s so horribly wrong with the Terminal.app that you feel the need to install another terminal emulator? I edit .bash_profile and .bash_rc but I never felt the need to change the terminal emulator. Not even on GNU/Linux distributions …
The included terminal is very bare-bones. I mean, go to the iterm webpage and look at the features list. Iterm is a revered program in the Mac world, second only to Alfred on my list. Claiming that replacing the terminal is equivalent to rejecting the Stevejobsian worldview and I should just use linux is silly.
Also iTerm is a rare piece of mac software that doesn’t cost anything. Actually, from my list, baseline Alfred (sans powerpack), Hyperswitch, Adium, and Xgestures are free too.
To me that’s an empty reply. Looks like you just installed it for the sake of installing something to me. The magic happens in the shell. The terminal emulator is not that important.
Keep in mind he is a Windows user and he will only be using macOS for a short time. He will not even think about what you are trying to say. He might have enough to do with getting used to vim and other nice tools instead of playing around with unnecessary things. Take a look at this. Custom promt and custom commands in bash. That’s what helps.
As a Mac user I have to say I don’t like the gen 4 MacBook Pro series. This might be different depending on the use case. I get base model 15" MacBook Pros to use them as mobile UNIX workstations with the option to have a nice UI when I want to do something else. Maybe the new Macs are good for Video or Music editing
Pretty much my expierence so far is “ohhhhh… thats how they did that”
Since the Macbook is from 2012 with “only” 8Gb of RAM i have to say the ui and the programms are a bit laggy
But thats ok i can live with that.
The only thing i am missing so far is the ability to dock windows to the sides of the screen
Big plus point for me atm are the gestures with the trackpad. I ditched my mouse so i can use them.
Otherwise spotlight comes in pretty handy and works faster then windows search function
My main goal is to understand how the os works and where i do find config files etc. I dont want to screw around to the point where it looks like my gnome or xfce desktop on linux.
Maybe later but for now its learning the basics
Since I work as a network admin most of the time i work in terminals so the ssh config file comes in pretty handy
I would have chosen another OS myself but company policy is company policy…
Thats why i grabbed the Macbook when I had the chance
And tbo you just need putty and a good browser
I have a 15" touchbar macbook pro. I deeply and profoundly hate using the keyboard. Luckily the laptop is plugged into a thunderbolt 5k monitor with an external keyboard and mouse 99% of the time, so it isn’t an issue. But if I actually had to type on it, I would have returned the laptop for an XPS15.
Also the touchbar is useless, but it isn’t actually offensive like the keyboard.
Ok, let me try to help you a little there. You have like all the basic FreeBSD tools for networking on macOS. If you want to find out a little more on that check out the FreeBSD Handbook. macOS and the BSDs in general have a nice network stack but GNU/Linux is on par if not even better nowadays. Main difference between GNU/Linux and macOS for you might be ifconfig vs. ip tools on GNU/Linux.
Depending on what you want to do with it installing homebrew like @Ruffalo suggested might not be the worst idea if you want tools like nmap if you’re not comfortable compiling those by yourself.
That said I want you to know that macOS just like the BSDs is a whole package with a design philosophy. So it’s not just an OS but a whole package. This why there are no package managers compareable to the ones found on GNU/Linux in the BSD world. Yes there is pkg on FreeBSD but it doesn’t come close to apt or pacman. When it comes to editing config files like /etc/resolv.conf on GNU/Linux things get a little weird on macOS. If you can, don’t edit system config files on macOS.
I’m not even trolling or trying to make fun of people but sometimes GNU/Linux is the better choice.
Apple doesn’t seem to care about macOS anymore as well. Sad times for the ones who do other stuff than using UI Applications on macOS.
ikr … as someone who uses vim a lot not having a real esc key hurts. I wonder if apple will fix their design with the 5th gen MacBook Pros as Jonathan Ive is responsible for the hardware design again.
