so i finally got myself a new macbook and with that i have to go through the process of setting it up for development. so heres everything i do to set up my macbook for development with some reasons and explainations on why i use each app.

general apps

chrome

this is probaly the only thing that'll ever change in this list as i plan to give arc a go in the near future, but for now i've stuck with chrome.

raycast

i hate the command centre, its completely useless to me and i never have a need for it, but in comes raycast to make the concept easier and better! it's incredibely useful and has nice extensions for my apps and tools.

rectangle

i love the window management on windows, and i think rectangle is the closest thing to that on mac, it's a great tool that allows me to manage my windows with shortcuts and i think it's a must have tool for any mac user.

topnotch

with the new macbooks and their notch, the issue of the alignment of the menu bar has come up and i think topnotch is a great tool to fix that issue, it's a simple tool that makes the bar blacked out so that the notch is not visible, i think it's a great tweak to make the macbook look better, and you can have curved corners too!

obsidian

i think obsidian is a great note taking app that utilises markdown and has a lot of features that i think are very useful for note taking and writing.

dev tools

homebrew

i think this is the npm of macbooks, a simple package manager allowing me to install apps and tools with a simple command and control their versions, pretty self explanatory i think? i love that i can just do brew install nvm and it'll install my node version manager, simples.

visual studio code

nobody can be surprised by this at all, i think visual studio code is a great editor that has a lot of features and will always be the first to get developer extensions.

github desktop

i think this is a great tool for managing my git repos especially as i prefer a GUI based interace over a CLI one, i think it's a great tool for beginners and experts alike.

iterm2

this was arguably the hardest thing for me to decide to use when there are so many terminals available such as hyper, warp and of course the default terminal. but i decided to go with iterm2 because of its customizability and i dont feel the need for a terminal that is too flashy with GPT integrations and the alikes, for now.

oh my zsh

i think zsh is a good shell and oh my zsh is a great way to make it even better, with its themes and plugins, i think its a great way to make my terminal look and feel better for me.

starship

i learnt about starship not along ago and its a brilliant prompt that is very customisable and has a lot of features that i think are very useful, such as showing the git branch or node version of the current directory etc and most importantly, syntax highlighting, it is a nice little touch for already great terminal experience.

closing notes

so that's everything i've done to set up my macbook for development, what i use is nowhere near to gospel and i think everyone should use what they feel comfortable with, but i think this is a good starting point for anyone looking to set up their macbook for development without bloating it with unnecessary apps and tools.