Torstein K. Johansen has an interesting post on configuring a Mac to be comfortable for a Linux user. Johansen is a self described “die hard Linux user” but recently had to work on a Mac. Macs are Unix machines but they’re based on FreeBSD and are certainly not Linux so if you’re a Linux user it’s useful to know how to configure a Mac to be as much like a Linux workstation as possible.
The most important thing, of course, is getting a decent Emacs installed. It used to be that Apple included Emacs in their distributions but it was a very old version and not one that any modern day user would want to use. They’ve since stopped including it so you’ve no choice but to install your own. I do that by compiling from source but Johansen chose to load his from Homebrew.
Once Emacs is installed, most of the rest of Johansen’s configuration involves replacing the default, older, BSD Unix utilities with their more up to date GNU versions. His post shows how to do all that.
We here at Irreal are, as most of you know, a Mac shop so we don’t have that problem but Johansen’s post is still worthwhile. For example, I learned about btop, a top replacement and used his recipe to install it. I’m content with the BSD versions of the Unix utilities but if you prefer the GNU versions, he shows you how to install them.
All in all, its a really useful post for anyone who wants to make their Mac the best possible workstation. Macs are famously Unix based but the default install hides a lot of that from you. Johansen shows you how to fix that.