macOS is my favorite desktop operating system.

I do wish to expand my horizons and try out Linux more. I doubt I will ever be able to move to another operating system as I have too much invested in optimizing and using macOS but I do want to take the best of all worlds. Linux is open source, has an increasingly large community of users and developers and one thing that I love about UNIX systems is that by using these systems you effectively become a developer. Because otherwise you are simply missing out on the full experience.

Clean install

You can clean install by going to Recovery mode (restart with cmd+r pressed). Then Disk Utility > Select disk > Erase (Format it) > Close Disk Utility > Select option Reinstall MacOS (Choose macOS ver. to install).

Notes

• In save dialogues I can press these keys:

  • Return or ⌘ + S = Save

  • ESC = Cancel

• I can also press / or ~ to quickly go to some directory from a save dialogue. And I can press ⌘ + ↑ to go to parent directory.

• Recovery mode: Power off the machine, press the power button and immediately hold Cmd-R.

• ​Both Windows and MacOS are at a point where clean installs are unnecessary.​

  • I can appreciate someone wanting to do a clean install if they've installed and removed many apps and just want to clear out everything spread around all the system and hidden folders, even if it doesn't really affect performance and won't save a ton of disk space. There is something cathartic about a clean install.

• /usr/local/bin is a good place to put raw binaries available in the path, that are not installed with Nix.

Links

• ​macOS developer tutorials​

• ​A Pro’s Guide to the Best Secret Mac Features​

• ​macOS open source​

• ​Create bootable USB macOS installer​

• ​macOS Security and Privacy Guide​

• ​Quick Look plugins​

• ​Connect to AirPods from mac instantly​

• ​cron is dead, long live launchd! (2017)​

• ​Control Mac Keyboard Brightness - Programmatically flash the keyboard lights and control display brightness on Macs.

• ​maclaunchmaclaunch - Manage your macOS startup items.

• ​Objective-See - Simple, yet effective macOS security tools.

• ​Caliguvara - another approach to Touch Bar Presets (2019)​

• ​AppUpdater - Simple app-updater for macOS, checks your GitHub releases for a binary asset once a day and silently updates your app.

• ​Brooklyn - Screensaver inspired by Apple's Event on October 30, 2018.

• ​How macOS versions evolved and changed over the time​

• ​PureDarwin - Community project to make Darwin more usable.

• ​Curated list of shell commands and tools specific to macOS​

• ​The new Mac Pro is a design remix (2019)​

• ​BlockBlock - Continually monitors common persistence locations and displays an alert whenever a persistent component is added to the OS.