First time with the Mac mini!

[patriotaki]

Hey all,

Just got the new M1 Mac mini. Any recommendations on what my first steps should be?

Is Clean my Mac as good as websites claim? Is it necessary to have such apps?
Can I run windows apps like WinSCP directly from Mac somehow?

Also what do you think about the Trackpad is it any good? Right now im using a mechanical corsair keyboard and a logitech gaming mouse

I am really struggling with the combinations especially with the mouse back button on browsers, any suggestions?

 

[leman]

Hey all,

Just got the new M1 Mac mini. Any recommendations on what my first steps should be?

Make sure you have a good backup solution. Otherwise... it’s a computer. Do with it whatever you need a computer for.

Is Clean my Mac as good as websites claim? Is it necessary to have such apps?

No, it’s not necessary. In fact, I would advice you to avoid them as they are rather useless.

Can I run windows apps like WinSCP directly from Mac somehow?

There are some limited options (Wine/Crossover, Parallels preview with Windows ARM insider). Why do you want to run WinSCP though? There are very good alternatives available for the Mac.

Also what do you think about the Trackpad is it any good?

It’s excellent, I wouldn’t want anything else for normal desktop work. But it has its limitations of course, like any pointing device. It’s not the best for action games for example.

 

[svanstrom]

Just got the new M1 Mac mini. Any recommendations on what my first steps should be?

Macs are boring in the sense that you don't have to do anything with them; so it all comes down to what you want to do with it.

You first step should be to go into System Preferences -> Software Update, though.

 

[patriotaki]

Macs are boring in the sense that you don't have to do anything with them; so it all comes down to what you want to do with it.

You first step should be to go into System Preferences -> Software Update, though.

I've learned it the hard way, was struggling for 3 hours with my dual monitor setup.. any usb c adapter with hdmi port was making both screens unusable and flickering!

I am looking for some good Code Editors, on windows i used Atom, Notepad++. Any recommendations in the Mac OS X world? Xcode already installed for my swift developing

There are some limited options (Wine/Crossover, Parallels preview with Windows ARM insider). Why do you want to run WinSCP though? There are very good alternatives available for the Mac.



It’s excellent, I wouldn’t want anything else for normal desktop work. But it has its limitations of course, like any pointing device. It’s not the best for action games for example.

Does Wine work? Last time i used it on my macbook pro with i5 didnt work well at all!
I am really struggling with FTP clients, the best i've used was Transmit. but no where near Winscp

What limitations does the Trackpad have?

I am also looking for a free clipboard history tool and a fast screenshot tool like ShareX on Win

THANKS!

 

[jdb8167]

I've learned it the hard way, was struggling for 3 hours with my dual monitor setup.. any usb c adapter with hdmi port was making both screens unusable and flickering!

I am looking for some good Code Editors, on windows i used Atom, Notepad++. Any recommendations in the Mac OS X world? Xcode already installed for my swift developing

BBedit is good: Bbedit.

And of course Xcode for C/C++, Objective-C, and Swift.

And there is always VIM if you are a terminal/shell fan (and emacs if you must.)

Lots of people like Visual Studio Code: Visual Studio Code. I haven't used it recently since I haven't been doing much Typescript but it gets good reviews.

Atom for macOS works too I guess, I've never used it. I have no idea if it is Apple Silicon native.

Sublime Text was popular once but I don't know if it still is. They don't explicitly say that it works with the M1 but there is at least one item in the release notes that implies it.

TextMate is another editor that was once popular but I don't know if it still is or if it supports Apple Silicon natively.

 

[svanstrom]

I am looking for some good Code Editors, on windows i used Atom, Notepad++. Any recommendations in the Mac OS X world?

Personally I like Sublime Text; it has just the right amount of git integration for my taste (I primarily use git in the terminal).

However, I'm the type of person that up until a couple of years ago wrote all code using pico/nano; simply because my philosophy was that it forced me to actually solve the problem rather than waste time on some sort of "explorative typing", so my advice here might not be exactly mainstream. ?

 

[crevalic]

I've learned it the hard way, was struggling for 3 hours with my dual monitor setup.. any usb c adapter with hdmi port was making both screens unusable and flickering!

I am looking for some good Code Editors, on windows i used Atom, Notepad++. Any recommendations in the Mac OS X world? Xcode already installed for my swift developing


Does Wine work? Last time i used it on my macbook pro with i5 didnt work well at all!
I am really struggling with FTP clients, the best i've used was Transmit. but no where near Winscp

What limitations does the Trackpad have?

I am also looking for a free clipboard history tool and a fast screenshot tool like ShareX on Win

THANKS!

VSCode. Great settings sync if you use more than one device, even across different operating systems. Massive community and extension library, with amazing support for any language or functionality you can imagine. Open source, publicly developed on GitHub, with extremely responsive devs. No contest really, it is that good and extremely popular. You probably want to grab the insiders version which is native for M1.

 

[jerryk]

Another vote for VSCode. It runs just about everywhere, and the massive number of extensions means it is supported for almost any language and tools stack.

 

[patriotaki]

VSCode. Great settings sync if you use more than one device, even across different operating systems. Massive community and extension library, with amazing support for any language or functionality you can imagine. Open source, publicly developed on GitHub, with extremely responsive devs. No contest really, it is that good and extremely popular. You probably want to grab the insiders version which is native for M1.

Does the insider version work well with M1?

 

[alien3dx]

I've learned it the hard way, was struggling for 3 hours with my dual monitor setup.. any usb c adapter with hdmi port was making both screens unusable and flickering!

I am looking for some good Code Editors, on windows i used Atom, Notepad++. Any recommendations in the Mac OS X world? Xcode already installed for my swift developing


Does Wine work? Last time i used it on my macbook pro with i5 didnt work well at all!
I am really struggling with FTP clients, the best i've used was Transmit. but no where near Winscp

What limitations does the Trackpad have?

I am also looking for a free clipboard history tool and a fast screenshot tool like ShareX on Win

THANKS!

FTP client - cyberduck
Code Editor : Visual Studio Code,Text Edit
Screen shot : command + shift + 4.
Video screen short : Quicktime

For me , i still using phpstorm for editing php ,xcode for swift ui,android studio

 

[leman]

For code editors, I use Textmate and Sublime 4, but starting to look at Nova - it’s pricey but looks nice, and it’s M1 native…

 

[Ybersetzer]

Hey all,



Also what do you think about the Trackpad is it any good? Right now im using a mechanical corsair keyboard and a logitech gaming mouse

I love the Trackpad to bits. You get the benefit of all the multi-finger-actions the Macbook trackpads are known for. But the biggest plus in my book is this:
I found and find it very easy to use the Trackpad with my 'weaker' (in my case: left) hand. It sits flush to the left of my keyboard and I don't even think about that the left is actually not the hand I usually do fine-motor-stuff with, or write with a pen etc. etc. The benefit: while using a mouse with my right hand I was always coming very close to developing carpal tunnel problems. I COULD use a mouse with my left hand, but it did not feel right. The trackpad is awesome in this regard. One of my best purchases ever.

Battery lasts about two, two and a half weeks, I don't bother to turn it off when not in use, standby time is excellent.

 

[LED]

Does the insider version work well with M1?

I've been using it for about a month without any issues.

 

[crevalic]

Does the insider version work well with M1?

I use the insider version on my Intel MBP, so can't speak for the M1 personally, but I've seen many people claim it's extremely snappy on M1, even in comparison to the Intel version (which I find really snappy already).

 

[dmccloud]

I've learned it the hard way, was struggling for 3 hours with my dual monitor setup.. any usb c adapter with hdmi port was making both screens unusable and flickering!

I am looking for some good Code Editors, on windows i used Atom, Notepad++. Any recommendations in the Mac OS X world? Xcode already installed for my swift developing


Does Wine work? Last time i used it on my macbook pro with i5 didnt work well at all!
I am really struggling with FTP clients, the best i've used was Transmit. but no where near Winscp

What limitations does the Trackpad have?

I am also looking for a free clipboard history tool and a fast screenshot tool like ShareX on Win

THANKS!

Here's my current development setup on my M1:

BBEdit
Brackets
Atom
VS Code
NetBeans w/ OpenJDK
XCode

 

[dmccloud]

Does the insider version work well with M1?

It is M1 native, so it runs great on the system.

 

[theSeb]

I've learned it the hard way, was struggling for 3 hours with my dual monitor setup.. any usb c adapter with hdmi port was making both screens unusable and flickering!

I am looking for some good Code Editors, on windows i used Atom, Notepad++. Any recommendations in the Mac OS X world? Xcode already installed for my swift developing


Does Wine work? Last time i used it on my macbook pro with i5 didnt work well at all!
I am really struggling with FTP clients, the best i've used was Transmit. but no where near Winscp

What limitations does the Trackpad have?

I am also looking for a free clipboard history tool and a fast screenshot tool like ShareX on Win

THANKS!

For swift Xcode is fine, but if you are willing to pay, then I highly recommend JetBrains AppCode