This is mostly a reference for myself. I had to migrate to a new MacBook amidst a very busy week and I realized I have already memorized most of these steps, but this time I took notes. It took me about an hour. Next time will be even faster.
Plug in main external storage.
cp -r /Volumes/SPARTACUS/* ~/
Move dock to the left. Magnification on. Hiding on.
Finder settings: new Finder window shows ~/.
General settings: change computer name to something clever and witty.
Sound settings: don't play user interface sound effects.
Trackpad settings: Tracking speed at 70%. Silent clicking on. Tap to click on.
Siri & Spotlight settings: Ignore private folders.
Open Safari. Install Chrome. Open Chrome.
Install Mullvad.
Install Dropbox.
Install Cryptomator.
Install M+ fonts.
Install VLC. VLC settings: Show all → Interface → Main interfaces → macosx → Don't resize interface to the native video size.
Install Rectangle.
Install Inkscape.
Install Shottr.
Install Spotify.
Install Docker.
Install Homebrew.
softwareupdate --install-rosetta
Install Sublime. Install via Package Control: Colorsublime, TypeScript and Vue extensions. Copy over settings and theme settings from backup.
Install Command Line Developer Tools.
Install iTerm2. Set font to M+ 1m at size 20.
touch ~/.zshrc
Add subl to $PATH.
Copy over SSH keys and ~/.ssh/config from backup.
Install nvm. Install latest Node LTS.
npm i pnpm -g
pnpm i -g 0x clinic giget
Clone repositories from GitHub.
⁂
That's my previous computer. A truly spicy pillow.
I have to admit, it took me a while to notice how bad it was. I guess one of the symptoms of burnout is this, you don't notice your computer slowly blowing itself up. Still, over half of Happy Little Monoliths was written on it — at least until the E key popped off due to the inflating battery pressure.