setup-new-computer-script

Dev tools

developer environment setup script

SHOW HN2021

169points
126comments
#282of 2,533 in 2021
Top 12%of 2021 by points

How HN took it

RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical

9 positive, 5 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 20 critical, out of 34 comments about the project. Thread score -0.28.

Idea: 5 for, 15 againstDesign: 0 for, 3 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Useful reference for onboarding and known machine state

    From 2 comments
    • "Removing an ideal opportunity to learn" A script like this is also a reference, a known state, which is valuable, even necessary, all by itself regardless if you agree with what…
      Brian_K_White on HN
    • ``` defaults write com.apple.finder ShowPathbar -bool true ``` This is handy. I could never figure out how to reliably use a Finder window to navigate to a specific directory so…
      oplav on HN

Objections

  • Opinionated installs of unneeded personal tools; prefer own setup or Nix

    From 3 comments
    • I'm probably in the minority here but I would never run this if given the option. Most of the stuff in here has nothing to do with development as is just personal preference.…
      xyzzy_plugh on HN
    • I am 100% with you. I did some consulting work for a startup that had this kind of thing. “Oh you are having trouble with our dev environment? We have a small script that will…
      IgorPartola on HN
    • As a long time brew and Mac user who keeps his Linux/Mac environments in relative sync, I find these scripts fascinating, but would ultimately never, ever run anything like this,…
      rcarmo on HN
  • Removes learning opportunity for new hires

    From 1 comment
    • We have many devs who are fresh out of university or used to windows, so not all are experts with the Linux/Mac command-line. This is helpful for them... Removing an ideal…
      onion2k on HN
  • Config management tools like Ansible or Chef are better

    From 3 comments
    • Something I've not seen done, but to me seems like it would be much more useful than a shell script (or maybe would have, in these tools' heyday), would have been to use a tool…
      don-code on HN
    • Sorry, but configuration management supersedes setup scripts. This isn't interesting.
      errcorrectcode on HN
    • I've found that using ansible works pretty well for setting up dev machines.
      winrid on HN

Requests

  • Make install choices configurable or a Brewfile-based setup

    From 1 comment
    • Here's some feedback if it's helpful for the author. As mentioned in the comments, the script is supposed to cover fresh grads and Windows users with no prior Linux/macOS…
      koirapoika on HN
  • Support for M1 Macs

    From 1 comment
    • Author here: This script helps new developers at my workplace setup their MacBook laptops quick, letting them hit the ground running. Before this script, it could take 2-5 days…
      joelkesler on HN

Questions

  • Is the script idempotent?

    From 1 comment
    • Author here: While developing it, I have run it a great number of times on my own computer (in addition to testing on clean MacOS install VMs) and it will only install what is…
      joelkesler on HN
  • Best current way to manage Python on Mac

    From 1 comment
    • The bits about Python caught my eye. What is the current state of the art with python on Mac? Python 2->3, brew vs core install and pyenv changes all seem to combine to make it a…
      ZeroGravitas on HN

Alternatives named

  • geerlingguy mac-dev-playbook (Ansible)

    From 2 comments
    • https://github.com/geerlingguy/mac-dev-playbook a well loved and maintained ansible playbook for macs. Just FYI
      thatguydidit on HN
    • Nice - i learned few tricks from there. for the mac setup, I have been using this for years and works well for me. https://github.com/geerlingguy/mac-dev-playbook
      meabed on HN
  • thoughtbot laptop script

    From 1 comment
    • Nice work! I’ve used a similar script for Ruby dev (actually I use it as a reference rather than just running it, but still useful): https://github.com/thoughtbot/laptop The…
      zingar on HN
  • Nix

    From 2 comments
    • This script is a great pitch why Nix is the future. Using these scripts as a way to give "reproducible" build environments is just doomed.
      setheron on HN
    • > I use Nix where possible and tend to avoid homebrew. Half of these things I have in my dotfiles or nix configs already, as do most of my peers. I think this makes "is this…
      rgoulter on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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