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Not just with development environments, but all computer configuration, I stick with the defaults as much as possible. Instead of changing the configuration of

Not just with development environments, but all computer configuration, I stick with the defaults as much as possible. Instead of changing the configuration of the computer, I change myself. For example, let's say an app has a default keyboard shortcut I don't like. I won't change it. Instead, I'll just get used to it until it becomes muscle memory. Now the default configurations are my preferred configurations. Of course, there are still a few things I change from the defaults. But since there are so few I can just configure them by hand, because how often am I setting up a new computer? Not very often. And there are so few config changes, it only takes a minute. The only thing I have to actually sync is my vim config. It's a very small config, but it's still more than nothing. I just store it in a Git repository.

aynawn 4y ago
If i have to deal with ancient osx gnu gplv2 utilities, i think I'd go bananas. You have to modify the default settings at some point or your productivity will surely wane in comparison to others. I see your point with some defaults but the purest approach doesn't seem practical either.
mekster 4y ago
> I stick with the defaults as much as possible. Instead of changing the configuration of the computer, I change myself. This is the worst advice you could give. There are plenty of shitty defaults and default tastes vary from app to app and there's a reason things are customizable. Customize to your taste throughout your tools and don't let a new tool eat your time.
D13Fd 4y ago
This is where I’ve come to over the years as well. Generally defaults are best unless it’s something you really care about and that makes a big difference to your workflow. Most configuration stuff doesn’t fit that category - or if it does, it’s best to first work on just caring about it less if possible.
hansor 4y ago
I'm doing the same. In some companies you can't just get ssh to outside world, or download some stuff from github... So I stick to defaults and I try to do development on single machine.
Brajeshwar 4y ago
Yes, this is one of the best decision I made quite a while back. I'm usually asked for ideas and advices on how to setup computers, both technical and non-technical friends and families. I have always suggested putting a little more effort in learning the defaults and getting used to it. I have even written a short essay, as I found myself repeating the same suggestions many a times. https://notes.oinam.com/digital/apple/ https://notes.oinam.com/digital/apple/
qbasic_forever 4y ago
Agreed, same thing with basic stuff like color schemes. I just pick one that's auto installed by default with an IDE and stick with it. I'm tired of futzing and installing stuff to get things juuuuust right. Most IDEs come with great defaults.
Vinnl 4y ago
Additional benefit is that defaults are often such that they work well together, often in ways that you might not have foreseen beforehand and thus never would have set up yourself.
vlunkr 4y ago
I think there's a healthy middle ground here. Endless tweaking of settings tends to be a waste of time, but if you spend hours a day on a computer, you might as well make it comfortable. Some people use no $EDITOR plugins and wear it like a badge of honor, this is pretty silly to me. The few minutes it takes to install and learn about a plugin might save you hundreds on hours in the future. I guess my personal strategy is to run with the defaults until you find the pain points, and install/configure something to address them. And put them in git repo if possible.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  > Some people use no $EDITOR plugins and wear it like a badge of honor, this is pretty silly to me. I don't use any plugins for PyCharm or IntelliJ, but they're pretty full-featured right out of the box. I certainly don't do it as a badge of honor, that indeed is pretty silly. But vim is useless without any plugins. Even VSCode is only marginally better than Notepad++ unless you give it the plugins necessary to turn it into an actual IDE and not just a code editor.
  - allarm 4y ago
    > vim is useless without any plugins It’s not? I mean vim defaults are great, it supports a lot of formats out of the box (indentation, syntax highlighting), it’s ideal for quick edits. Surely if you need an IDE-like functional then it’s not enough (probably) but it is very far from being useless without plugins.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
sideshowb 4y ago
Yes, this. Custom configurations are a maintenance burden when you change systems. Living with defaults saves time in the long run, usually. Only when I spot an exception to that rule will I install something custom.
vladvasiliu 4y ago
I have a friend who does this. But his reasoning goes one step further. He's usually mentoring people on his team, so he finds it very valuable to be able to not only function quickly on someone else's setup, which is usually the standard, but to give them hints that'll work directly for people unfamiliar with the tools.
corrral 4y ago
Yeah, my macOS set-up is simple enough it's not worth scripting or otherwise saving. Use the GUI settings panel to make CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl. Takes maybe 10 seconds. Use same to make dock auto-hide. 10 seconds if I'm slow about it. Install Homebrew. Maybe 15 seconds hands-on and a couple minutes in the background. Use Homebrew to install spectacle. Less than 5 seconds hands-on time, done less than a minute later. Start Spectacle and use its preferences panel to set it to start on boot. Maybe 15 seconds. Remove all the pinned programs on the dock. 60-90 seconds. The last one's the only part I've considered scripting, but since I only do it once every couple years at most, it's not really worth it. Once I'm past a Mac's initial "welcome to Mac" flow and on the actual desktop, I'm only about 5 minutes (not all of it actively doing things) from having a comfortable environment set up and being all ready to install project-specific tools, as needed. If I ever switch back to Linux (or FreeBSD, which is more likely at this point) I might go back to versioning and backing up a bunch of config and dot files. I need them, there.
- metaltyphoon 4y ago
  > CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl Another fine specimen, salute!
  - bradwood 4y ago
    If it was ESC instead you'd get a +1. ;)
    - stefandesu 4y ago
      Mine just does nothing.
    - hybridtupel 4y ago
      What if I told you that you can have both? For me it's ctrl when I hold it down and use it with another key and esc when I press it briefly. Can be set up on a Mac with Karabiner Elements.
      - 4y ago
__turbobrew__ 4y ago
You can take it even further: stick to the defaults and mainly use command line tools. Almost every linux box has bash, vim, and the GNU command line tools. If you can become proficient with default config cli tools, you can become proficient on almost any linux box.
bananarchist 4y ago
This is a great answer if, like you said, you don't set up computers very often. I use mostly defaults in part because I set up computers a couple times a month. Often just for a day does that physical or virtual device live, consuming my configs, but having to manually do it every time would be a pain.

aynawn 4y ago

If i have to deal with ancient osx gnu gplv2 utilities, i think I'd go bananas. You have to modify the default settings at some point or your productivity will surely wane in comparison to others. I see your point with some defaults but the purest approach doesn't seem practical either.

mekster 4y ago

> I stick with the defaults as much as possible. Instead of changing the configuration of the computer, I change myself. This is the worst advice you could give. There are plenty of shitty defaults and default tastes vary from app to app and there's a reason things are customizable. Customize to your taste throughout your tools and don't let a new tool eat your time.

D13Fd 4y ago

This is where I’ve come to over the years as well. Generally defaults are best unless it’s something you really care about and that makes a big difference to your workflow. Most configuration stuff doesn’t fit that category - or if it does, it’s best to first work on just caring about it less if possible.

hansor 4y ago

I'm doing the same. In some companies you can't just get ssh to outside world, or download some stuff from github... So I stick to defaults and I try to do development on single machine.

Brajeshwar 4y ago

Yes, this is one of the best decision I made quite a while back. I'm usually asked for ideas and advices on how to setup computers, both technical and non-technical friends and families. I have always suggested putting a little more effort in learning the defaults and getting used to it. I have even written a short essay, as I found myself repeating the same suggestions many a times. https://notes.oinam.com/digital/apple/ https://notes.oinam.com/digital/apple/

qbasic_forever 4y ago

Agreed, same thing with basic stuff like color schemes. I just pick one that's auto installed by default with an IDE and stick with it. I'm tired of futzing and installing stuff to get things juuuuust right. Most IDEs come with great defaults.

Vinnl 4y ago

Additional benefit is that defaults are often such that they work well together, often in ways that you might not have foreseen beforehand and thus never would have set up yourself.

vlunkr 4y ago

I think there's a healthy middle ground here. Endless tweaking of settings tends to be a waste of time, but if you spend hours a day on a computer, you might as well make it comfortable. Some people use no $EDITOR plugins and wear it like a badge of honor, this is pretty silly to me. The few minutes it takes to install and learn about a plugin might save you hundreds on hours in the future. I guess my personal strategy is to run with the defaults until you find the pain points, and install/configure something to address them. And put them in git repo if possible.

Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
> Some people use no $EDITOR plugins and wear it like a badge of honor, this is pretty silly to me. I don't use any plugins for PyCharm or IntelliJ, but they're pretty full-featured right out of the box. I certainly don't do it as a badge of honor, that indeed is pretty silly. But vim is useless without any plugins. Even VSCode is only marginally better than Notepad++ unless you give it the plugins necessary to turn it into an actual IDE and not just a code editor.
- allarm 4y ago
  > vim is useless without any plugins It’s not? I mean vim defaults are great, it supports a lot of formats out of the box (indentation, syntax highlighting), it’s ideal for quick edits. Surely if you need an IDE-like functional then it’s not enough (probably) but it is very far from being useless without plugins.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

sideshowb 4y ago

Yes, this. Custom configurations are a maintenance burden when you change systems. Living with defaults saves time in the long run, usually. Only when I spot an exception to that rule will I install something custom.

vladvasiliu 4y ago

I have a friend who does this. But his reasoning goes one step further. He's usually mentoring people on his team, so he finds it very valuable to be able to not only function quickly on someone else's setup, which is usually the standard, but to give them hints that'll work directly for people unfamiliar with the tools.

corrral 4y ago

Yeah, my macOS set-up is simple enough it's not worth scripting or otherwise saving. Use the GUI settings panel to make CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl. Takes maybe 10 seconds. Use same to make dock auto-hide. 10 seconds if I'm slow about it. Install Homebrew. Maybe 15 seconds hands-on and a couple minutes in the background. Use Homebrew to install spectacle. Less than 5 seconds hands-on time, done less than a minute later. Start Spectacle and use its preferences panel to set it to start on boot. Maybe 15 seconds. Remove all the pinned programs on the dock. 60-90 seconds. The last one's the only part I've considered scripting, but since I only do it once every couple years at most, it's not really worth it. Once I'm past a Mac's initial "welcome to Mac" flow and on the actual desktop, I'm only about 5 minutes (not all of it actively doing things) from having a comfortable environment set up and being all ready to install project-specific tools, as needed. If I ever switch back to Linux (or FreeBSD, which is more likely at this point) I might go back to versioning and backing up a bunch of config and dot files. I need them, there.

metaltyphoon 4y ago
> CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl Another fine specimen, salute!
- bradwood 4y ago
  If it was ESC instead you'd get a +1. ;)
  - stefandesu 4y ago
    Mine just does nothing.
  - hybridtupel 4y ago
    What if I told you that you can have both? For me it's ctrl when I hold it down and use it with another key and esc when I press it briefly. Can be set up on a Mac with Karabiner Elements.
    - 4y ago

__turbobrew__ 4y ago

You can take it even further: stick to the defaults and mainly use command line tools. Almost every linux box has bash, vim, and the GNU command line tools. If you can become proficient with default config cli tools, you can become proficient on almost any linux box.

bananarchist 4y ago

This is a great answer if, like you said, you don't set up computers very often. I use mostly defaults in part because I set up computers a couple times a month. Often just for a day does that physical or virtual device live, consuming my configs, but having to manually do it every time would be a pain.