I’ve decided to stop using Ubuntu as my primary home computer and make the switch to OSX. I’ve purchased a new Macbook Pro and for the first time ever not immediately installed Ubuntu. I love Ubuntu (and this blog is 99% all about Ubuntu); so why have I decided to make this change?
Why go to OSX?
1 – My company has started developing software for Windows and Mac. I need to test the software. I can run Windows and Linux in a VM but can’t run OSX without a Mac.
2 – I don’t have some much time to geek and make Ubuntu work with my Android phone, my wifes Mac, a Nas, 4oD, Amazon streaming videos or any other random bits of hardware and software I need. Fundementally, OSX is better supported and just works most of the time.
That doesn’t diminish how brilliant Ubuntu is. It’s awesome and does 99% of what I want. I have written this post because perhaps there are other people changing from Ubuntu to OSX. So, I thought that I would note down the changes that I made to the default OSX – after all it isn’t perfect!
HyperDock – I miss the awesome windows snapping of Ubuntu Unity. Hyperdock brings this to Mac.
Pathfinder – The default file manager on Apple really sucks. No folders? WTF? Install Path Finder.
Firefox / Chrome – Let’s be honest – Safari sucks.
Libre Office – Apple provide Numbers and Words which are simply too basic for my taste.
Install a repository
Would you believe it but Apple don’t have a system repository like Linux. By default you simply can’t just ‘apt-get install randompackage’. This feels like lossing my right arm after living with the awesome repositories the Ubuntu / Debian provide. Luckily, the open source communitry have made a solution. It is called Brew.
You install Brew by running:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)"
Then you can now run this one line…
brew install package
You can check for updates:
brew update
and upgrade like so:
brew upgrade
Install zsh
After using the awesome Ubuntu terminal, the default Apple terminal feels pants. You can fix this is just a couple of lines once you have Brew installed.
http://jakoblaegdsmand.com/blog/2013/04/how-to-get-an-awesome-looking-terminal-on-mac-os-x/
Remove the stupid [Process Completed] messages – When you exit the terminal you get the most annoying [Process completed]. This is super annoying.
Go to Terminal -> Preferences -> Settings -> Shell . Change “When the shell exits” to “Close if the shell exited cleanly”. This will close the window immediately after [Process completed] has shown.
Remove the stupid donk sounds –
I’m still learning about Mac’s and am updating this posts with all the changes that I made. I will keep editing this post as I change other things.
Thanks for writing this — if you have any updates from the past year I’d be glad to hear them. I’ve recently decided to make the switch for much the same reasons (testing web applications in Safari is possible but cumbersome), and I expect to hit many of the same annoyances.
Do you what is programm duplicate functionality exactly picasa in osx?