Setting up a new (Mac) laptop for Ruby/Web development?

Dave!

Hey guys,

I just ordered a fancy schmancy new Macbook Air No need to discuss the wisdom of buying a MBA over any other laptop, and the Apple tax, etc., because the deed is done! I'm happy with my decision :pac:

In order to channel my excitement until it gets delivered, I thought I'd do a bit of research. I'm looking for general thoughts and ideas for the first things you should do when you get a clean new machine and you want to set it up optimally for web development.

I do use an iMac in work, so have some experience working with OSX (although tbh my knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of the actual OS is a bit limited; I'm probably not getting the maximum use out of it), but I inherited the machine from a previous employee, and some things are set up a bit funky, e.g. there are some peculiar ownership issues with Postgres.

I'm thinking things like...

- Install MAMP (I do a bit of PHP too)
- Generate ssh keys
- Download iTerm2
- Install Git
- Install Postgres
- Edit your bash_profile
- Edit your hosts file
- Set up some way of backing up your files
- Install Homebrew

etc

I work mostly with Ruby/Rails, so will be looking to set things up with that in mind.

Would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions!

Thanks

Fad

TextMate is fantastic for Ruby, if you havent used it, perhaps give it a look

Dave!

I think DHH uses that too... but I'm loyal to Sublime Text :pac:

colm_c

RVM is essential for ruby on Mac OS, I would also install MySQL, php etc from scratch as I find mamp a bit funny.

Xcode is also a good idea to install, it's a requirement for some other installs.

Max out the ram if you haven't already, makes a good difference.

Time capsule with timemachine is the best backup option IMO.