Workstation

• Workstation
  • Current Setup
  • Font
  • Tools
    • Package Manager
    • Terminal Emulator
    • Version Control
    • Shell & Command Line Utilities
    • Web Browser
    • Containerization
    • Development
    • Database Clients
    • REST Client(s)
    • General Productivity
    • Video Player

Current Setup

• Laptop - MacBook Air (13-inch, M1, 2020)

  OS - macOS Ventura 14.1.1
  Memory - 16 GB
  Storage - 512 GB

• External Display - Dell U2723QE

• Keyboard - Royal Kludge RKG68(RK837) V2 Wireless

• Mouse - Logitech MX Master 3

Font

I use Fira Cousine which can be downloaded from here

Tools

When it comes to tools, I like to keep it simple and minimal. I won't have anything installed that I do not use regularly.

Package Manager

• Homebrew is my goto package manager and also the very first thing that I install on a new MacBook.

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

Terminal Emulator

• Alacritty

  brew install --cask alacritty

Version Control

• Git

  brew install git

  configuration

  git config --global init.defaultBranch main

Shell & Command Line Utilities

zsh is my favorite which comes bundled with macOS and is the default shell. And, below are some tools that make zsh even better.

• bat - They say it is a cat(1) clone with wings and I cannot agree more.

  brew install bat

  configuration - because my muscle memory is so used to cat

  # add this to .zshrc
  alias cat='bat'

• jq - If you deal with JSON, you just need this.

  brew install jq

• diff-so-fancy - Do you also hate what comes after you hit git diff on your terminal? You'll find excuses to do that after you install diff-so-fancy.

  brew install diff-so-fancy

  configuration

  git config --global core.pager "diff-so-fancy | less --tabs=4 -RFX"
  git config --global interactive.diffFilter "diff-so-fancy --patch"
  
  git config --global color.ui true
  
  git config --global color.diff-highlight.oldNormal    "red bold"
  git config --global color.diff-highlight.oldHighlight "red bold 52"
  git config --global color.diff-highlight.newNormal    "green bold"
  git config --global color.diff-highlight.newHighlight "green bold 22"
  
  git config --global color.diff.meta       "11"
  git config --global color.diff.frag       "magenta bold"
  git config --global color.diff.func       "146 bold"
  git config --global color.diff.commit     "yellow bold"
  git config --global color.diff.old        "red bold"
  git config --global color.diff.new        "green bold"
  git config --global color.diff.whitespace "red reverse"

• dua-cli - get detailed information of what is eating up your disk space right from your terminal.

  brew install dua-cli

• duf - an excellent replacement to df.

  brew install duf

• ripgrep - my code searcher. I did not find anything better/faster.

  brew install ripgrep

• gnu-sed - I just do not like the default sed from macOS.

  brew install gnu-sed

• stow - GNU Stow is a symlink farm manager. I find it extremely useful for managing dotfiles.

  brew install stow

• tmux - This thing is just amazing as a terminal multiplexer.

  brew install tmux

• fzf - A command-line based fuzzy finder.

  brew install fzf
  
  # To install useful key bindings and fuzzy completion:
  $(brew --prefix)/opt/fzf/install

• exa - A modern replacement for the good old ls.

  brew install exa

  configuration - because my muscle memory is so used to ls

  # add this to .zshrc
  alias ls='exa --header --long --classify --sort size --colour=always'

• direnv - A tool that can load or unload environment variables depending on the current directory.

  brew install direnv

Web Browser

• Firefox - with extensions Octotree, BitWarden, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, uBlock Origin, Decentraleyes

Containerization

• docker

• dive - helps you take a deep dive into your docker images

  brew install dive

Development

• Neovim - with GitHub Dark High Contrast theme

  brew install nvim

• IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition - for Java

• Visual Studio Code - for Shell Scripts, Python, Go and JavaScript

Database Clients

• pgcli - for some quick connections & checks with my PostgreSQL clusters

  brew install pgcli

• Datagrip - for when I'm working on some big/serious SQL scripts, multiple DBs and etc.

REST Client(s)

• Insomnium

• HTTPie

General Productivity

• Rectangle - I've never come across a better window manager for macOS

  brew install --cask rectangle

• BitWarden - My password manager. I just use the Firefox extension and not the desktop application.

Video Player

• IINA - This thing is powerful and minimal at the same time.