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Matt Houghton for AWS Community Builders

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New Mac Config

Updated for new MacBook Pro with M1 Pro Chip - April 2022

My previous Mac was starting to overheat so it was swapped for another.

I decided to install things as I required them rather than restore from a Time Machine backup as I thought I'd probably built up a lot of things that did not need over the last couple of years.

Here are my notes on the basic tools and config for a new Mac that I find useful working mostly with AWS.

Set Appearance To Dark Mode

Settings --> General --> Appearance

Enable Mouse Secondary Click

Settings --> Mouse --> Secondary click (on right side)

Docker

https://www.docker.com/get-started

iTerm

https://www.iterm2.com

Parallels Toolbox

https://www.parallels.com/uk/products/toolbox/

Apps From Apple App Store

Keynote
Bear - Markdown Notes
Marked 2 - Markdown Preview
Logic Pro
Microsoft Remote Desktop
Slack

Other Apps

Dynobase
JetBrains All Products Pack
BlackMagic DaVinci Resolve Studio
Blackmagic ATEM Switcher
RodeCasterPro
Rogueamoeba Entire Lineup

Xcode Command Line Tools

xcode-select --install
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Install Oh My Zsh

https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh

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

https://brew.sh

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
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Quick Look JSON

http://www.sagtau.com/quicklookjson.html

brew install quicklook-json
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JQ

https://stedolan.github.io/jq/

brew install jq
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Terraform

https://www.terraform.io

brew tap hashicorp/tap
brew install hashicorp/tap/terraform
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AWS SAM

https://aws.amazon.com/serverless/sam/

brew tap aws/tap
brew install aws-sam-cli
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AWS CLI

https://aws.amazon.com/cli/

brew install awscli
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AWS Shell

https://github.com/awslabs/aws-shell

brew install aws-shell
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AWS CDK

https://aws.amazon.com/cdk/

brew install aws-cdk
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DBeaver

https://dbeaver.io

brew install --cask dbeaver-community
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Go

https://go.dev

brew install go
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Node

https://nodejs.org/en/

brew install node
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Corretto JDK

https://aws.amazon.com/corretto/

brew install --cask corretto
`

Maven

https://maven.apache.org

brew install maven

Gradle

https://gradle.org

brew install gradle

wget


brew install wget

Make iTerm Look Nice

Colour theme set to solarized dark

Powerlevel 10k

https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ~/powerlevel10k
echo 'source ~/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme' >>~/.zshrc

Restart iTerm and run through the config wizard that starts

.zshrc settings

`
ZSH_THEME="agnoster"

plugins=(
git
git-prompt
aws
docker
git-extras
pip
python
)
`

Top comments (3)

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dvddpl profile image
Davide de Paolis

Very useful. I also created a doc on my gdrive with all the steps and stuff I need in case I buy another laptop. :-)
And regarding overheating... What was your previous one? How old? I bought a MacBook pro in March and I noticed recently that the fan starts spinning like crazy, just by using Chrome..

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mattdevdba profile image
Matt Houghton

Thanks!

Yes I've been meaning to document the steps for a while and now I've been forced into it.

My previous model is a 2018 Mac MBP. Not that old really but it is on all the time. I also noticed the Chrome thing for quite a while.

The crunch point came last week when I was trying to use the machine on its own. I normally work at a desk with a few screens. Without the external displays I managed to get about 10-15 minutes work done and then the built in display would just switch off.

At this point it would cool down a little and I started to get the warning on the battery icon saying "service recommended".

I also had the kernel_task process running a lot and consuming CPU which when I googled is apples way of trying to prevent overheating. support.apple.com/en-gb/HT207359

All these things combined and work were kind enough to swap it out for another unit they had in stock. :-)

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jasondunn profile image
Jason Dunn [AWS]

I just did a bare metal install of Big Sur on my iMac to fix some issues, and it really is interesting to see how many tools you REALLY need day to day. It's a helpful fresh look.