macOS

Disable Updates

Automatic updates are enabled by default. Disable automatic updates:

  • System Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates > “(i)” > (Disable all options listed) > Done

If a manual update check was made, a subjectively annoying red dot appears on the System Settings app in the dock. It shows the number of available updates. Either remove System Settings from the dock or replace it with an alias. [8]

  • (Open Finder) > Applications > (right-click on “System Settings”) > Make Alias

Window Positioning

Rectangle

Rectangle is a free and open source window tiling software for macOS. It adds native windows snapping similar to Windows. It also adds a variety of shortcuts for more customizations. [7]

Shortcuts:

  • control + option + [left|right] arrow = Move a window to be on half of the screen.

Rosetta

Rosetta 1

Rosetta 1 was used to run PowerPC programs on Intel. It was provided in MacOS X 10.4 Tiger through 10.6 Snow Leopard. [3]

Rosetta 2

Rosetta 2 is used to run Intel programs on Arm. It was first added to macOS 11 Big Sur. [4] When an Intel program is executed, macOS will prompt the end-user to install Rosetta 2 if it is not installed already. [5]

Manually install Rosetta 2:

$ softwareupdate --install-rosetta

Enter an Intel-compatible shell on the CLI [6]:

$ arch-x86_64 zsh

Xcode

Xcode Developer Tools is a suite of different utilities for doing development on macOS. It can be installed from the App Store.

Common utilities [1]:

  • Command Line Tools = awk, git, make, sed, ssh, svc, tar, zip, and more.

  • SwiftUI = A user interface designer for Swift programs.

  • Terminal 2 = An advanced Termanial app that supports more colors, additional tabs, and full Unicode support.

  • Xcode IDE = A custom IDE tailored for development of apps on Apple products.

Homebrew

Homebrew is an unofficial package manager for macOS.

  • Install: /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

  • Search for a program to see if it can be installed: brew search <PACKAGE>

  • Update cached repository metadata: brew update

  • Install a CLI utility: brew install <APP>

  • Install a GUI app: brew install --cask <APP>

  • Upgrade a package: brew upgrade <PACKAGE>

  • Upgrade all packages: brew upgrade

  • View all programs, and their dependencies, installed by Homebrew: brew list

  • View only the programs, not their dependencies, that were installed by Homebrew: brew leaves

[2]

History

Bibliography

  1. “Xcode - Features.” Apple Developer. Accessed January 12, 2021. https://developer.apple.com/xcode/features/

  2. “Homebrew The Missing Package Manager for macOS (or Linux).” Homebrew. Accessed January 13, 2021. https://brew.sh/

  3. “ARCHIVED: In Mac OS X, how do I run PowerPC applications with Rosetta?” University Information Technology Services. January 18, 2018. Accessed July 5, 2023. https://kb.iu.edu/d/azjd

  4. “Apple ARM Macs: What you need to know now.” July 15, 2020. Accessed July 5, 2023. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3566912/apple-arm-macs-what-you-need-to-know-now.html

  5. “If you need to install Rosetta on your Mac.” Apple Support. June 26, 2023. Accessed July 5, 2023. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211861

  6. “How to Install x86_64 Homebrew Packages on Apple M1 MacBook.” Medium. July 26, 2021. Accessed July 5, 2023. https://medium.com/mkdir-awesome/how-to-install-x86-64-homebrew-packages-on-apple-m1-macbook-54ba295230f

  7. “How to get true window snapping in MacOS.” ZDNET. July 5, 2023. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-get-true-window-snapping-in-macos/

  8. “Remove the Red notification dot from System Settings icon in the dock.” Reddit r/MacOS. March 28, 2026. Accessed April 23, 2026. https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1r5lkgp/remove_the_red_notification_dot_from_system/