[HN Gopher] Sensible macOS Defaults
___________________________________________________________________
Sensible macOS Defaults
Author : garrtt
Score : 221 points
Date : 2021-03-19 14:11 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| garrtt wrote:
| For clarity, I should point out that I don't believe that all of
| these defaults are "sensible" for every user. I gave the
| submission it's title because that is how the creator refers to
| the file.[0]
|
| [0]
| https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/tree/master#sensib...
| dhosek wrote:
| I do my best to _not_ change defaults on systems that I use. It
| ends up being a pain point any time I go to some other computer
| and have to deal with my extensions /customizations not being
| there. Something needs to be a _big_ productivity gain to merit
| the change (or else be a trivial modification, like disabling
| caps lock).
| m463 wrote:
| When I read this I thought - A kindred spirit: #
| Disable automatic capitalization as it's annoying when typing
| code # Disable smart dashes as they're annoying when typing
| code # Disable automatic period substitution as it's
| annoying when typing code # Disable smart quotes as they're
| annoying when typing code # Disable auto-correct ...
|
| but then I saw this - # Allow the App Store to
| reboot machine on macOS updates
|
| I assume this after you manually started the update, otherwise it
| is madness!
| bengale wrote:
| I'm not sure I agree with much of these, which makes sense
| because this is definitely not 'sensible defaults' it is just
| someones preferred settings.
|
| I wouldn't copy this unless you know for sure this is how you
| want your system configured.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| Presumably everyone thinks their own defaults are 'sensible',
| otherwise they wouldn't be using them.
|
| I think the most sensible defaults are those that come out of
| the box, rather than spending time tweaking things.
| bengale wrote:
| > Presumably everyone thinks their own defaults are
| 'sensible', otherwise they wouldn't be using them.
|
| Maybe, although I set my caps lock up to be escape when
| tapped and control when held, I don't think that would be
| sensible for many people at all unless the knew why they
| wanted it.
|
| > I think the most sensible defaults are those that come out
| of the box, rather than spending time tweaking things.
|
| This is probably true, I find it very difficult to use anyone
| else's system since my config is non-standard.
| matwood wrote:
| > I set my caps lock up to be escape
|
| Which was the only sensible thing to do when Apple dropped
| the ESC key ;)
|
| I'm so used to caps == ESC now, it takes me a minute to
| realize what's wrong when I'm on a new system/keyboard.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| > I'm so used to caps == ESC now, it takes me a minute to
| realize what's wrong when I'm on a new system/keyboard.
|
| Isn't this a bad thing?
| Nullabillity wrote:
| Compare how much time you spend using your own system vs
| others'.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| If you learn the default, it doesn't matter how much time
| you spend on any given system. I don't get why people
| make themselves less portable by becoming dependent on
| non-defaults.
| bengale wrote:
| I do it because it makes my life easier on the system I
| use 99% of the time.
| dbalatero wrote:
| Who is this mythical person jumping between tons of
| computers? Who is dependent? The few times you're on a
| different computer you just deal and fallback to the
| mean.
| chipotle_coyote wrote:
| For what it's worth, I use Vim fairly regularly and have
| always left the escape key alone. (The "butterfly
| keyboard" Mac tempts to me remap it, but that is not, in
| the final analysis, Vim's fault.) I do, however, tend to
| remap caps lock to control, because I think it's a better
| place for it and it's not exactly a high effort thing to
| do the remapping -- it's built right into the Mac's
| system preferences.
|
| As other people have pointed out, most of us aren't
| regularly using computers that aren't ours (or at least
| "ours," in the case of work machines permanently assigned
| to us), and I suspect nearly everyone who reads this web
| site has changed more than one thing on their computer
| that deviates from a fresh out-of-the-box default. :)
| matwood wrote:
| The default is reaching to the top left corner of the
| keyboard. I know the default and it's terrible if someone
| uses vim. In macOS it's trivial to remap the caps lock
| key to ESC system wide through the built in preferences.
| So while it's not that way out the box, it's certainly in
| the realm of default configurations any user might make
| on their machine.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| I can't really understand picking an editor that is so
| awkward that it relies on me _reconfiguring my hardware_
| and breaking the labelling of the keys to make it usable.
| matwood wrote:
| Here's the thing. Even if someone doesn't use vim,
| remapping a mostly useless key like caps lock to ESC is
| still more useful. ESC should cancel out of most dialogs
| and popups, so should be key that is likely used more
| often than the occasional times someone needs to type a
| long enough string of upper case characters to need caps
| lock.
|
| As far as editors and key labels, I don't really
| understand the problem. Move beyond any of the basic
| shortcuts on any editor, and you quickly move into
| combinations that have little to do with what's written
| on the key(s).
| matwood wrote:
| It's 1 key change, and since I use vim keybindings in
| almost everything it's much easier on the system I use
| 99.9% of the time.
| myrandomcomment wrote:
| Cap locks should be control the way god intended it! :)
|
| You can use the hidutil if you want to script changes
| yourself:
|
| https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2
| 450...
|
| Or Karabiner Elements:
|
| https://github.com/pqrs-org/Karabiner-
| Elements/blob/master/R...
|
| I have an Filco Japanese keyboard and the default
| settings on macOS even when the keyboard is set to
| Japanese (QWERTY JIS) gets the Ying Shu (alphanumeric)
| key, and kana (kana) key wrong (and they are supported on
| the built in laptop keyboard).
| saagarjha wrote:
| Word of warning: hidutil keeps the caps lock delay, so
| you'll miss short presses. This drove me mad until I
| figured it out but by then Karabiner had thankfully been
| updated for the new OS.
| kube-system wrote:
| Speak for yourself, I'm well aware that many of my
| preferences are esoteric. :)
| gowld wrote:
| Most people never think about the defaults.
| akmarinov wrote:
| If you use these as they're written, you'll end up with a
| Brussels timezone, so yeah - definitely edit them beforehand.
| bengale wrote:
| One hour closer to quittin' time!
| linux2647 wrote:
| Or nine if you live on US west coast ;)
| cush wrote:
| Exactly. Whoever wrote this is a minimalist. I want a hot pink
| animated focus indicator. I feel like I'm a sensible person,
| but after reading this script... I just don't know anymore.
| throw0101a wrote:
| > _I wouldn 't copy this unless you know for sure this is how
| you want your system configured._
|
| A before and after picture (video?) for each would be helpful
| in making a decision in each case.
|
| Also, is there a revert-to-defaults script?
| hollandheese wrote:
| > # Trackpad: map bottom right corner to right-click
|
| This is the most monstrously non mac-like thing I've ever seen.
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| It was a popular "hack" back in the days before two-fingered
| click detection. Probably not as efficient as ctrl-click, but
| that felt even less Mac-like at the time.
|
| A lot of these preferences seem to reflect the opinions of
| someone who would quite happily be stuck in 2005. Reverse
| scrolling... ugh.
| hollandheese wrote:
| Weird. I can't remember anyone doing that back in the day, as
| it was super easy to just ctrl-click. This seems like a
| "hack" for former Windows users ("switchers"), where ctrl-
| click has been around since Mac OS 8.
| [deleted]
| spankalee wrote:
| It'd be awesome if this could help with two anti-user innovations
| in recent macOS:
|
| 1) Disable Apple Music, which has the annoying habit of opening
| every time I touch my headphones, and is not removable from my
| own computer.
|
| 2) Force macOS to remember that I gave Chrome location
| permissions instead of reseting Chrome after every update.
| dcow wrote:
| Safari does this too.. Apple is on some horse about requiring
| user intervention for every single location request even from
| sites you've already allowed in the past. It's annoying.
| spankalee wrote:
| macOS does not forget that _Safari_ has location permissions.
| In fact, they 're enabled by default. Chrome however has its
| location permissions reset so often that they had to add a
| feature to tell users it was off again.
| jbirer wrote:
| This gives me the impression that command line configuration
| interface for MacOS is really good, at least compared to FreeBSD,
| Windows or Linux.
| johnvaluk wrote:
| While it's true that there are many command line options
| available, I use a similar script to configure my Macs and it
| can be quite painful compared to Linux. First of all, this is a
| script, not a configuration file, so the changes only take
| effect when it is run, not when a user starts a session (though
| I suppose that could be done). There are any number of ways the
| settings can be changed and preserved without your knowledge,
| so you'll need to run the script periodically. I actually keep
| portions of the configuration state (nvram, defaults) in
| version control so I can audit changes.
|
| There are also a number of different commands (scutil, nvram,
| defaults, pmset, PlistBuddy, etc.) instead of common interface
| for things that seem related but aren't. Discoverability is
| horrible, even when you know the name of the setting you want
| to change. It is not immediately apparent what arguments are
| needed for "defaults write" based on the output of "defaults
| read" (possibly due to my own ignorance, but this raises the
| learning curve substantially).
|
| Granted, there are a thousand different ways to configure any
| given Linux environment with varying degrees of difficulty, but
| I feel like many of the user preferences in the linked script
| would be better managed in dotfiles as they are in Linux (and
| other Unices and even for many apps on Mac OS).
| kergonath wrote:
| > First of all, this is a script, not a configuration file,
| so the changes only take effect when it is run, not when a
| user starts a session (though I suppose that could be done)
|
| I don't think there is anything wrong with re-setting a bunch
| of properties in plist files every time a session is opened.
|
| You're right, the CLI is a difficult to use if you don't know
| it beforehand. And even knowing it does not tell you about
| the various properties you can change with default. At least
| the script here points to some useful options.
| easton wrote:
| This reminded me a bit of messing around with TinkerTool around
| 10.4-10.5 times, and to my surprise, it's still supported with a
| Big Sur compatible release!
|
| https://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html
| mrtksn wrote:
| Wouldn't be better to call this "cheat sheet"?
|
| macOS already has sensible defaults, that's how people who have
| no interest in dealing with computers can use their machines for
| years with no issues or servicing(unless a latte is spilled over
| the keyboard).
|
| Then, you can customise behaviour for some specific things to fit
| your workflow.
|
| The problem with diverging from defaults without putting much
| thought on it is that if you don't use it frequently you forget
| about it and when weird bugs happen it gets very hard to debug
| because a common issue with a straightforward solution may no
| longer apply to you and you have no idea why since you cannot
| make the connection because you don't remember changing it.
| garrtt wrote:
| I agree that calling it sensible is subjective. Most of these I
| wouldn't even use myself, but I found it to be a good reference
| overall. I set the title for the post based on the how the
| creator references the file.
| raghavkhanna wrote:
| Perhaps something to the tune of "How to customize macOS
| defaults" would be more appropriate then?
| moistbar wrote:
| > Wouldn't be better to call this "cheat sheet"?
|
| Why would you call a script that actually changes things and
| doesn't actually show you a cheat sheet a "cheat sheet?"
| mrtksn wrote:
| Because the lines that do something are nicely categorized
| with documentation included. Instead of running it all, you
| can take a look what's possible and apply it individually.
| moistbar wrote:
| > Instead of running it all, you can take a look what's
| possible and apply it individually.
|
| That's true of any script. The fact that this one is well
| commented doesn't make it not a script.
|
| A cheat sheet is something you hang on a wall and glance at
| every so often. A script is something you run to make
| changes to a system. You can't run a cheat sheet.
| mrtksn wrote:
| How do you tell that it's not a really long string or a
| web page but a script? Maybe it's just a pattern of dots
| projected on LCD or 1s and 0s stored on a computer. I
| don't see any more concrete proof that it's not any of
| these but a script.
| moistbar wrote:
| > How do you tell that it's not a really long string or a
| web page but a script?
|
| `#!/usr/bin/env bash` is a bit of a dead giveaway.
| dhosek wrote:
| I just see dots on my screen
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| If you don't want to make changes like turning the
| highlighter color to green or set the TZ to Belgium, it's a
| great template for making your own version of the script, and
| it does the useful work of collecting a bunch of 'defaults
| write', 'pmset', and 'nvram' commands
| root_axis wrote:
| I mean, you could use it as a cheat sheet, but that's not what
| it is. IMO macOS has a lot of terrible defaults that are not at
| all sensible, of course this is quite subjective, but the fact
| that many mac users accept the defaults isn't really saying
| much, typically end-users don't even realize there are other
| options available.
| dcow wrote:
| Yeah but this is really a list of "tweaks". It's a nice list
| don't get me wrong, but changing the currency without
| prompting the user, using green as the highlight color (bad
| for accessibility), disabling window animations, configuring
| Transmission and TweetBot... there is plenty in the list that
| is in no way a "default" nor really even a sensible outcome
| to expect after running the script...
| mrtksn wrote:
| You can have different opinions on what's sensible but to
| claim that something is not sensible as general you need to
| make a point about an issue due to the default settings.
|
| For example, if people were getting hacked through remote
| desktop connection all the time you could have said that
| macOS has insensible defaults on the security or even
| existence of that feature.
|
| However, with macOS that's not the case, in fact macOS has so
| sensible defaults that a lot of its users have no
| understanding of how it works and yet successfully use it for
| years with no issues and not gaining any understanding
| through the years.
|
| The thing is so well designed that it's often dissed as a
| Starbucks machine, implying that it is used by people with a
| lot of money who don't know what they are doing while
| simultaneously is an extremely popular machine among creative
| professionals and engineers who also like coffee and know
| what they are doing.
|
| Having options is nice, for example I dislike dark mode but I
| like the dark statusbar so I have a customisation for it. I
| dislike autosorting of the Spaces, so I disabled it. I prefer
| to simply tap and not have to press on the trackbar so I
| enabled it.
|
| However I would't call the defaults not-sensible, it's just
| that I like some stuff differently from the defaults.
| notsureaboutpg wrote:
| The defaults aren't powerful, thought they are sensible.
|
| Windows (and most Linux DEs like KDE) come with out of the
| box snapping windows to the four corners of the screen and
| to the left and right which is perfect for how most people
| use their laptops. Most people need two separate windows
| open side by side because most jobs are about synthesizing
| two separate flows of information in some way (research in
| one window while writing a document in another for
| example).
|
| In mac you need to install an app to do this
| (Rectangle/Spectacle). Now, that's fine because you can
| click and drag the windows where you need them to be. But
| it wastes your time whereas the default in Linux/Windows
| saves your time. Sensibility over power.
| root_axis wrote:
| > _a lot of its users have no understanding of how it works
| and yet successfully use it for years with no issues and
| not gaining any understanding through the years._
|
| This is true of every popular operating system. Most people
| just adapt to the defaults regardless of the OS. There are
| millions of people who use windows or chrome os, or even
| ubuntu as-is out of the box. Whether or not people want to
| change the defaults just depends on what they're used to,
| if you used windows for years and switch to macOS it's very
| likely you're going to be inclined to modify certain
| defaults and the same is true in reverse.
| lucideer wrote:
| As most of the comments here on HN are taking issue with the
| weirdly editorialised HN title, rather than with the content, it
| would be great if a moderator could change the title to something
| more accurate like "Mathias Bynens' macOS defaults"
| garrtt wrote:
| I can change the title. I just set it to that because that is
| what Mathias calls it.
| kergonath wrote:
| FWIW I'm not annoyed by the title. It just sounds tongue in
| cheek. Of course, it's sensible to him because these are his
| settings.
| lucideer wrote:
| He does call them "sensible hacker defaults for macOS", which
| might get less criticism, but it's the repo title and there's
| no real indication that he's speaking to the general hacker
| public (and not privately to himself, as the "default
| hacker")
|
| Or does he use this phrase in some blog post?
|
| Either way it's not present on the linked file.
| carterschonwald wrote:
| Some of these are not what I'd want, but sprinkled among them are
| some really cool gems
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Agree.
|
| Example: default-expanded print and save dialogs (panels) is
| nice. I always find myself manually expanding those.
| garrtt wrote:
| Agree 100%
| sneak wrote:
| Disabling natural-direction scrolling isn't sensible.
|
| It's the first thing I fix on all other OSes. Why should the
| content go the opposite direction of the way I'm moving my
| finger?
|
| This is one of the best fixes Apple ever made, back in Lion.
| Kudos to them to seeing the everyday and noticing that it was
| wrong.
| gegtik wrote:
| This opinion betrays a lack of imagination.
|
| There are two equally valid subjective choices here:
|
| - does moving your finger up "grab the content" under the glass
| and move it up, or
|
| - does moving your finger up "grab the window", moving it up
| along a long virtual document?
|
| Both are legit mental models, it's a preference.
| sneak wrote:
| This would make sense if the choices were equal and opposite.
| They're not, though, since the advent of smooth scrolling.
| samatman wrote:
| This is configurable almost everywhere it is encountered, and
| there's a reason for that!
|
| It's the same dilemma as panning a first-person-perspective
| camera up and down. Some people think that down should move the
| perspective, some people think that down should move the
| _camera_ : so pushing the joystick down should move the viewing
| window up. These physical intuitions are durable and hard to
| change.
|
| I grimly endured the difference between a trackpad and a phone
| until OS X (as it was then known) switched to the "correct"
| default, but I'm one of those people who expects a camera to
| work like the control stick of a plane: pulling towards me, or
| down, should elevate the perspective. I purchased a gimbal
| recently, and was having a terrible time controlling it until I
| realized that the default (pushing the joystick up points the
| camera up) could be overridden.
|
| I don't think there's anything "sensible" in a general way
| about anyone's custom configuration script, frankly, and I
| suspect the person who made this wasn't actually trying to
| promote it for public consumption, and just meant "script to
| make my computer do what I consider sensible".
| eternalban wrote:
| MB credits ptb's OS X setup: https://github.com/ptb/mac-setup
| echohack5 wrote:
| Love it! I always love seeing these and then stealing a few ideas
| for my own.
|
| Shameless sharing: github.com/echohack/macbot
| ezequiel-garzon wrote:
| This guy is great, I enjoyed his material on ____ ampersands in
| HTML, https://mothereff.in/ampersands
| auiya wrote:
| I want literally none of these settings, how is this "sensible"?
| singingwolfboy wrote:
| These have been extracted from the "dotfiles" repo and made into
| a standalone project: https://github.com/kevinSuttle/macOS-
| Defaults
| seanalltogether wrote:
| I would think the audio prompt during system boot is a pretty
| critical piece of information if you ever have trouble starting
| your computer.
| gowld wrote:
| It's a Mac. If the computer doesn't start, take to a shop for
| an exchange.
| echohack5 wrote:
| Love it! I always steal a few ideas from these and add it to my
| own: github.com/echohack/macbot
| spaetzleesser wrote:
| A little unrelated but this hits one of my pet peeves.
|
| Why do people give things generic names that have basically no
| meaning? If I encountered the script in machine I would wonder
| "WTF does .macos do?" There is also no comment in the header.
|
| I see that at work too. People give lists of certain element
| types the name "list". So a lot of their code is full of classes
| with generic names like "map", "list" or "config" and every time
| you have to look at the code and see what the thing really does.
|
| Do people not work on large codebases?
| rgovostes wrote:
| prefsniff is a tool that can monitor defaults changes on macOS if
| you want to see what default key underlies a particular setting:
|
| https://github.com/zcutlip/prefsniff
| fit2rule wrote:
| This is nice, but for the MacOS users who have a hard time
| dealing with the terminal, I've lived by the Secrets prefpane for
| some years and find it most handy:
|
| https://github.com/ecnepsnai/Secrets
| maxfurman wrote:
| This is neat! I had no idea so much of macOS was configurable at
| the cli. That said, I am very nervous to try these commands
| because I'm not sure what the original default is - so if I don't
| like any option I have no idea how to set it back! Short of an OS
| reinstall, I suppose. I can see why Mathias would want to
| preserve these - it's not any weirder than checking in your
| emacs.d folder.
| artonge wrote:
| From the Reader:
|
| > Warning: If you want to give these dotfiles a try, you should
| first fork this repository, review the code, and remove things
| you don't want or need. Don't blindly use my settings unless you
| know what that entails. Use at your own risk!
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| I have some scripts that are super useful but also should not
| be used by somebody who doesn't know exactly what they're
| doing, so I literally stick a `exit 1` or such in the header so
| a teammate _can 't_ run the script without having looked at it
| first.
| dsXLII wrote:
| Sorry, soon as I saw the line that disables the startup chime I
| knew everything here was wrong.
| johnvaluk wrote:
| Can you elaborate? I despise the startup chime and disable it
| on all of my Macs. Why should they announce a startup when none
| of my other devices do? Why would I want to wake a sleeping
| baby or annoy other library patrons? This is one of the most
| obnoxious decisions Apple ever forced on its users (and, yes, I
| was happy when the illuminated logo on the laptop lid was
| finally put to rest).
| seanalltogether wrote:
| Because if you ever run into a problem where your computer
| doesn't turn on, the startup sound is your first indicator of
| whether the screen is faulty, or the board is faulty.
| gowld wrote:
| It's a Mac. "whether the screen is faulty, or the board is
| faulty" have the same fix.
| samatman wrote:
| Among the many differences, if the screen is faulty, one
| can plug in an external monitor, and: get files off,
| perform a backup, _use the computer_ , and so on and so
| forth.
| sneak wrote:
| Not if you know how to take apart computers.
| leetcrew wrote:
| and own a blowdryer.
| kube-system wrote:
| I have plenty of devices that announce startup, I can think
| of at least one in every room of the house. Everything from
| my pfSense box to my washing machine.
| agloeregrets wrote:
| It's intended originally to confirm boot, a real issue to
| solve back in the day. Some people get a warm nostalgia from
| it now. Not all choices need to be logical to improve a
| product for some.
| msbarnett wrote:
| It doesn't get any better when a few lines further down he
| disables the LaunchServices quarantine and frames it as
| eliminating a dialogue box instead of as eliminating a major
| mitigation to browser vulnerabilities.
|
| (a fun game whenever these silly scripts get posted is to count
| how many different security measures they silently disable with
| little to no warning to the naive)
| agloeregrets wrote:
| THIS. Holy crap this. Running this script will disable major
| security features on macOS intended to prevent phishing and
| remote execution.
| anoncake wrote:
| Turning startup sounds off is definitely the sensible default
| for laptops.
| doctor_eval wrote:
| Yes! The startup sound is part of the long history of the Mac.
| It's entirely nostalgic for me and always reminds me of the
| sense of wonder I felt when I first used a 128K Mac.
| bondolo wrote:
| In the spirit of this post, for those using Java for development
| on MacOS, I'll share my .zprofile which sets up a reasonable Java
| environment for working in the shell.
|
| https://gist.github.com/bondolo/5ce1a1c0d38e72a80a79ac28f951...
| wlll wrote:
| I'd greatly prefer a title such as "Mac OS defaults I prefer". I
| read the first page or so and honestly didn't find any that I
| would actually want.
|
| Labelling these "sensible" then suggests that the alternatives
| rather than just being personal choice are somehow not sensible,
| and who other than a fool would choose something that's not
| sensible?
|
| Well me it seems, and I feel like the patronising title is
| implying that I am one.
| garrtt wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26514195
|
| I would have titled it differently had the creator not referred
| to the file as such. I even tried changing the title earlier
| today (I don't particularly like it either), but it got changed
| back. Apologies!
| tingle wrote:
| This is a very useful list. Information on mac OS defaults is not
| easy to discover.
| smoldesu wrote:
| This is part of the reason I switched to Linux. I've heard so
| many people say "Linux is free only if you don't value your time"
| and then turn around and write one of these. If I'm going to go
| through the trouble of customizing an operating system to fit my
| needs, I may as well do it with a free and open system rather
| than MacOS, which can change for the worse at any moment (the
| dealbreaker for me was dropping 32 bit support). I spent 2 days
| getting my dotfiles spruced up, and now I can bootstrap any fresh
| Linux install by curling a script from my website and running it.
| On MacOS, it felt like I was constantly discovering things I
| didn't like, only to have the system fight me when I wanted to
| change it.
| gardaani wrote:
| _" the dealbreaker for me was dropping 32 bit support"_
|
| Funny. I decided to drop Ubuntu Linux because they dropped
| support for 32 bit CPUs. I switched to FreeBSD.
| herrkanin wrote:
| Realistically, the person who compiled this script file to make
| the OS behave exactly how they desire is very different from
| the kind of person who says "Linux is free only if you don't
| value your time".
|
| Personally, I like to keep to the defaults and prefer to change
| my own workflow to match the OS designers' vision of how I
| should use a computer, rather than to try to bend the OS to my
| priors. I understand why this don't work for everyone, but it
| has made my life much easier.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| This! I just get used to the defaults. When I change
| computers, no extra work for me. Contrast my business
| partner, who spends 2 days loading and configuring each new
| computer.
| notsureaboutpg wrote:
| How is it not extra work for you? As someone who is getting
| used to MacOS now for work, it's taken me more than a week
| to feel productive with the defaults...
| doctor_eval wrote:
| Absolutely! I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I
| used to customise everything "back in the day" and then I'd
| change machine or have to use someone else's - and all my
| muscle memory would be lost.
|
| These days the only thing I customise is the "refactor"
| shortcut in IDEA because the Fn keys suck on MacOS.
| rconti wrote:
| As a 26 year Linux user, I find it hilarious to imply it won't
| change for the worse at any time.
| gcommer wrote:
| Same. It's seriously hard to say how awesome it is that a few
| days invested into customization ~10 years ago have lasted with
| me all this time. According to my dotfiles, the last "upstream
| updated something so I had to fix my setup" change was 4 years
| ago.
|
| Firefox is the only program I run that requires constant
| "config maintenance".
|
| Meanwhile, I've used macOS at work for ~5 years. Every time a
| big release comes out, IT departments have to go around
| screaming "DONT UPDATE IT WILL BREAK EVERYTHING" for a month.
| Once that calms down later we finally can update (though I only
| _want_ to update because by that point the incessant "Update
| now or tonight?" prompts have driven me mad) -- and instead of
| everything breaking, it merely breaks half my customizations
| and I have to waste time fixing it.
| dreamcompiler wrote:
| I already use many of these and have learned several more good
| tips from reading this script.
|
| In recent years Apple's default settings have trended more and
| more away from what keyboard-focused power users (i.e.
| developers) need, IMHO. That wouldn't be a big deal except
| they've also trended toward locking down those defaults to make
| them difficult to change. Scripts like this make it possible for
| me to continue doing development on the Mac without tearing my
| hair out.
| supernintendo wrote:
| > Disable the sound effects on boot
|
| As someone who grew up using an old school Mac in the 90s, this
| is blasphemy! That triumphant chime is essential to the Macintosh
| experience (just kidding but kinda not).
| sneak wrote:
| Here are mine, for comparison:
|
| https://git.eeqj.de/sneak/osx/src/branch/master/custompkg/ro...
| Maursault wrote:
| nitpik: I prefer to define the $PATH of every command used in a
| bash script to prevent some possible shenanigans.
|
| sudo="/usr/bin/sudo"
|
| launhctl="/bin/launchctl"
|
| scutil="/usr/sbin/scutil"
|
| nvram="/usr/sbin/nvram"
|
| defaults="/usr/bin/defaults"
|
| et cetera
| echohack5 wrote:
| Since APFS firmlinks these binaries you might be setting up
| some undesirable behavior, especially if a folder is set to
| read only. :) Most of the time you'll be ok though
| chrisweekly wrote:
| I love "dotfiles" in general, and IMHO this repo makes for
| excellent reference material. There's always something more to
| learn, and IME (paid to use computers since 1998) time spent
| improving your tools is usually well-spent. Of course tinkering
| can be a rabbit hole or time-sink of a hobby, but leveraging
| others' expertise (via dotfiles repos like Mathias's) can
| mitigate that risk. More generally, taking the time to grok the
| system you depend on -- and shaping it to your liking -- is one
| of the most sensible things you can do.
| jonnycomputer wrote:
| It looks like this is some person's set of config files, and for
| my part I find it useful to see how someone has set these OS
| configurations programmatically, but its quite opinionated, which
| is fine, but not exactly some kind of minimum set of defaults
| that most users would agree on--which OP suggests is the case.
| PascLeRasc wrote:
| How do people generally discover these default variables? Is
| there a manual from Apple or is it just exploratory?
| bronson wrote:
| Mostly manpages and experimentation. Here are some:
| https://github.com/kevinSuttle/macOS-Defaults/blob/master/RE...
| latexr wrote:
| 1. `defaults read > file_a`.
|
| 2. Change setting via GUI.
|
| 3. `defaults read > file_b`.
|
| 4. `diff file_a file_b`.
|
| If you already know the domain you want to change (like the
| bundle ID of a specific app), add it after `read`.
| _def wrote:
| the sudo loop is really dangerous
| aeturnum wrote:
| I love that this document takes inscrutable OS X settings and
| translates them into familiar human-readable settings. I have no
| idea what "NSGlobalDomain NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode" is,
| but I understand what "Expand save panel by default" means.
|
| However, like other people, I'm not sure that I agree with _this
| particular_ set of changes. Is there a project somewhere that
| packages these options into a GUI? I know a bunch of folks who
| use OS X who might want to change these things, but they 're not
| programmers and they don't even know shell scripts exist.
| [deleted]
| ttepasse wrote:
| > Is there a project somewhere that packages these options into
| a GUI?
|
| There was: Secrets* was both a website were people aggregated a
| small database of these options and a MacOS preference pane
| which displayed these:
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20150515104503/http://secrets.bl...
|
| https://blog.taylormcgann.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/sec...
|
| (* by the makers of Quicksilver!)
|
| Sadly the project stopped updating in 2012 and the website,
| repository and forks seem all long gone.
|
| (Should anyone resurrect this great app, one improvement should
| be versioning of secrets recipes. AFAIR Secrets.prefPane
| displayed options long after they stopped applicable for later
| Mac OS versions.)
| kergonath wrote:
| Onyx has a bunch of these: https://www.titanium-
| software.fr/en/onyx.html
|
| It's probably not exhaustive, but quite convenient.
| aeturnum wrote:
| Oh thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for.
| Terretta wrote:
| Not all of these changes are 'sensible' by default.
|
| Some original settings are useful belt-and-suspenders for flow
| blindness.
| simias wrote:
| Yeah "sensible defaults" doesn't make a lot of sense, it's way
| too opinionated. I could see using that as a starting template
| for some of my own preferences though. It's like reading
| somebody's vimrc, even if you don't care about 90% of it you
| might still find a few interesting tidbits that make your life
| easier.
| cassianoleal wrote:
| Indeed. More like "random person on the Internet's preferred
| macOS settings".
| wincy wrote:
| I for one definitely think the whole world should set their
| timezone to Brussels.
|
| Seriously though, I like not having scrollbars everywhere, I
| use two fingers for right click on the track pad, I do it
| without thinking, if I turn off natural scrolling I get
| incredibly confused.
|
| Some of the stuff I can get behind, like this
| # Enable full keyboard access for all controls #
| (e.g. enable Tab in modal dialogs) defaults write
| NSGlobalDomain AppleKeyboardUIMode -int 3
|
| I get annoyed when secure keyboard entry turns on and doesn't
| turn off properly in iTerm as it messes up Dash's snippets.
|
| I'm sure this is the sensible defaults for this one really
| picky person, and it's interesting to see all the choices,
| but I would definitely advise against someone running this on
| their workstation blindly.
| gugagore wrote:
| I have not found a way to script the `Keyboard Preferences ->
| Input Sources` settings. I even versioned (in git) a ton of the
| `.plist` (property list) files in `~/Library/Preferences/` (they
| are binary files, but one can use `plutil` to get a textual XML
| representation). I think I arrived at the conclusion that these
| settings are persisted on a global / system level, and that there
| was basically no solution. I would be happy to be proven wrong!
|
| When I was starting from scratch with macOS a few months ago, I
| had that sense of fresh new beginning. I wanted to have all of
| the configuration scriptable and versioned. Unfortunately those
| preferences files also include a bunch of timestamps and dates
| and window locations, so it ends up being not a great idea.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| Sensible for who? I wouldn't want many of these settings, and,
| for example, my parents would want almost none of them. These
| kind of scripts are almost never a good idea.
| anamexis wrote:
| How does one find all of these "defaults" settings? Is there a
| reference somewhere?
| garrtt wrote:
| defaults read
|
| will show you all of them but it's a pretty long list
| larkost wrote:
| That also only shows you values that have been set. There can
| be values that are defaulted within the program itself that
| can be set, but do not have their default values written to
| any file, so do not show up in the `defaults` command except
| when set manually.
|
| Unfortunately, the usual way of finding those is to `strings`
| the application binary, and weed through all the chaff. And
| that requires either a fishing expedition, or for you to
| already know what you are looking for (including what binary
| might be responsible for that).
| saagarjha wrote:
| Reversing the binary to find calls to
| NSUserDefaults/CFPreferences.
| vondur wrote:
| So these settings are on a per user basis, or do they take effect
| system wide?
| thought_alarm wrote:
| The sudo commands are system settings, the rest are user
| account settings.
| canjobear wrote:
| I scrolled through the first few and every single one was either
| something I didn't like or a bad idea.
| drivingmenuts wrote:
| I stopped at Yosemite.
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