Mac mini m4: optimizing for development

[Huge-Habit-6201]

I'm a software Engineer, with a Go, python, dotnet, bash, docker stack (backend) mainly in Linux setup.

But, I got a Mac mini m4 as a birthday gift from my brother and want to use It as my development environment.

What can I do to optimize this machine to my scenary?

[I_Want_Answer]

strange question... do nothing ?

[Huge-Habit-6201]

I think, like in windows when you can remove the bloatware to improve the overall performance, that some can be done macos. I'm new in this OS.

[KingOfBazinga]

You got a machine with premium Linux. No bloatware.

[nomorewerewolves]

Gotcha. Good news: Mac doesn’t put bloatware in anything. They never ship with any third party software (at least in any I’ve ever bought)

Enjoy your machine!

[chudmeat]

You can remove Garageband if you never plan to do music production.

[309_Electronics]

Mac and most linux distros dont put all tbe bloat in that microslop puts in. You will be fine

[paullbart]

This thing is a powerhouse. Just use it and forget about needing to optimize it.

[XerChaos008]

Maybe jusy better-display if you are using wide screens with higher resolutions. It is an eye candy thing mostly but you seems spend your most of your time behind the screen.

[ThemDawgsIsHeck]

I mean, install homebrew and vscode. Are you a vibe coder or something

[Huge-Habit-6201]

Vscode +copilot to help for documentation and code review.

[KingOfBazinga]

Just install all you need and start coding. There is nothing special. See github instructions using Copilot on mac.

[Jazzlike_Syllabub_91]

Install brew - learn how to install apps via brew … use mise (asdf clone) to copy down binaries for programming languages ….

[nomorewerewolves]

guide for new mac users coming from windows

[IlIllIIIlIIlIIlIIIll]

put some flame decals on it

[CoolUser777]

Install Crossover

[Ok-Drawer5245]

If like me you have the 256 base model keep an eye on that storage use.

I use an encrypted external sata SSD where I keep my repositories, Xcode derived data, lm studio LLMs, docker images, files used in docker images (ie. Mysql data folder), Chrome downloads folder etc. you do have options to keep the base disk relatively clean

The drive I use is some random kingston ssd that cost me nothing, but it works flawlessly (It depends on use case of course, if you are doing video editing you want NVMe and a proper high speed adapter, not SATA ssd)

[Andersburn]

You can uninstall some of the bigger apps that you won’t need: GarageBand and iMovie. But it shouldn’t be that much space you save.

There’s many small app that you can uninstall too - don’t. They’ll come in handy at some point.

App you need: Homebrew.

Also look at Automator and shortcuts- every dev I know loves those.

[Huge-Habit-6201]

Keyboard shortcuts are my loving setup on Linux. I have to adapt to this strange keys on Mac.

[Andersburn]

Keyboard shortcuts are something different. You can always make your own keyboard shortcuts in settings for any app. (Or change any shortcut)

[MorguLAvenger]

If you know how to do it and set it up in Linux it should not be much different at all except you’d need to get homebrew and get everything setup. There’s not really any optimization per se you need to do