October 2018

My Current Setup in 2018

#tools #setup

Inspired by Freek's article about his current setup, I wanted to share mine as well. In this article, I will list all the soft- and hardware that makes my current setup.

Note: Here you can find Freek Van der Herten's article about his setup.

Hardware

Laptop

I'm using a 13" 2016 MacBook Pro. It was one of the first series with the Touch Bar. It is now the third time that I bought a 13" MBP. The size makes it super handy for traveling or working on a couch. The only disadvantage is that it is not as powerful as the bigger versions. This is why I'm thinking about buying an iMac in the future. But right now, I don't have the money.

Note: The only thing I like about the Touch Bar is the design. It looks gorgeous! But overall, I don't use it and I miss the ESC key 😥

Display

Next to the laptop, I'M using a 27-inch (2560 x 1440) Apple Cinema Display. Meanwhile, it is quite old, but still a beautiful display. Looking forward to the day I can buy a 4K display :-)

Keyboard and Mouse

I also use Apple products here. I got an Apple Wireless Keyboard and a Magic Mouse 2. Both work over Bluetooth, which was very important to me. I like to keep my desk as clean as possible. Primarily, the keyboard works great for me and has the right amount of feedback while typing.

Microphone

From my punk-rock days, I still got an old AKG Perception 220 microphone. I still use it for some acoustic guitar records, but it is quite useful for voices as well. These days I use it for podcasts or voice recording during coding videos.

Boom Arm

Here I decided to buy a quality product by Rode, the PSA1. This works well with my quite heavy microphone.

Audio Interface

Since my microphone needs an XLR cable, I also have to use an external audio interface. Currently, I use the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. It's nice, for some home recording as well.

Software

OS

I'm always using the latest version of Apple's OS. When there is a new, I wait a few weeks, and then try it as well. This way most of the first bugs get always fixed first. Generally, I always try to work with the latest software.

IDE

Screenshot showing my PhpStorm color theme

PhpStorm is my favorite IDE. I'm using it now for several years, and it provides so many great features. This is also why I'm ok with some performance issues compared to non-IDEs like Sublime.

The theme I use is called Dracula, which is a dark theme. My font of choice is FiraCode, which is a free font for coding with ligatures.

Terminal

From the screenshot, you can also see that I prefer to use the built-in terminal by PhpStorm. Next, I also use the iTerm2 terminal with the Solarized Dark Colors.

Local Environment

For two years now, I'm using Laravel Valet, and I love it. It was never easier to create a local developing environment. Last week I had some troubles with local MySQL installation. It was the first time I wished for a VM setup as you get with Docker or Homestead. But since everything is working so smoothly, I haven't switched yet.

FTP

Since a few years, I don't use an FTP client regularly anymore. Still, it's good to have one. My choice here is Transmit. It's a beautiful client for the Mac.

Productivity

Like Batman, I always got Alfred by my side. Alfred helps me to be more productive while working my Mac. I use it all the time for opening applications, finding files, translations and more. It is a must-have for my setup.

Next to the built-in features, here are added workflows I use on a daily basis:

SQL

Sequel Pro is the best SQL client you will find for Mac. Surprisingly, you can get for free.

GitHub

I don't use any GitHub clients on my Mac. Old-school Terminal it is :-)

Window Control

For resizing and moving windows, I trust Spectacle. It's a straightforward, but useful app.

Grammar

While working on my book, I first heard about Grammarly. It's a grammar correction tool and an excellent one. Even the free version provides many features. Since I write now quite regularly, I also subscribed for the paid version. I love this tool!

All-In-One-App

Since this year, I use an app called Station. It's a wrapper for all kind of other apps. I use for the messenger clients for WhatsApp, Telegram, and Slack. This way, only one app is opened instead of three. Still, Station needs quite some memory and is sometimes slow. So this is not the perfect solution.

What's Next

I'm quite satisfied with my setup. The biggest problem right now is that I don't have a separate room for my office at home. This means I'm working in our living room. I hope we can change that in the future and then I also want to get a new table where I can adjust the height.