As developers, we spend a substantial amount of time executing commands on the terminal. Whether it's navigating through directories, running scripts, changing Node.js versions, or version control commands, manually typing every command is a time consuming task.

For those who struggle to remember commands or their associated flags, this can become even more tedious.

Worry not! There's a simple yet powerful solution to this problem. It's called terminal aliases.

The alias Command

The alias command allows you to create shortcuts for existing commands, making them easier to remember and quicker to execute. When you define an alias, you are creating a new label for an existing command.

Syntax of alias Command

The syntax is straightforward: you can assign a command to a label like you'd assign a value to a variable in most programming languages.

alias alias_name='long command'

Let's dissect this command to understand it better:

• alias: The terminal command that enables defining an alias.
• alias_name: This is the name or the label you are assigning to the command. Basically, you will type this in the terminal instead of the full command.
• 'long command': This is the command that you want to add an alias to. Make sure that you are wrapping the command with single quotes (') as almost all commands contain spaces or special characters.

Predefined Aliases

There are some predefined aliases already set within terminals. And there is a high chance that you were using them without even knowing.

Such aliases are defined within the system (/etc/bash.bashrc) or user specific (~/.bsahrc) shell configuration files.

You can find a list of all predefined aliases by executing the alias command without any options or flags.

alias

How to Create an Alias that Persists Across Sessions

By default, aliases only persist in the current session. That means, if you close the terminal, the alias will be erased and you cannot use it afterwards.

To tackle this, you must define the alias in the shell's configuration file. Shell is an interpreter that resides inside a terminal and establishes an interface between you and the operating system. Hence, accessing the correct shell as well as modifying the correct configuration file is very important.

Here are the configuration files for the three most commonly used shell applications:

1. Bash: ~/.bashrc
2. Zsh: ~/.zshrc
3. Fish: ~/.config/fish/config.fish

Let's try adding a new alias to Bash.

echo "alias nrd='npm run dev'" >> ~/.bashrc

Let's dissect this command:

• echo: A terminal command that lets you write content within the terminal command.
• "alias ...": This is the content we talked about in the previous point. It's an alias command that adds nrd as an alias for the npm run dev command.
• >>: Tells the terminal to append the content on the left (alias command) to the file on the right. In our case, we are storing it in the bash configuration file.
• ~/.bashrc: This is the file to which the content from the echo command will be added.

Don't forget to replace ~/.bashrc with your shell's configuration file.

How to Create a Dynamic Alias

Oftentimes, you need to use repetitive commands but with some little changes based on what you want. The best example of this is Git commands. In this case, you can add a substitute to your command which would be replaced by the dynamic option/parameter while executing it in the terminal.

alias gpll='git pull --rebase origin ${branch}'

While executing the command, you need to replace ${branch} with the branch you want to pull changes from. This is how you would do it to pull changes from the main branch:

gpll main

You can also add multiple substitutes to your alias. Just make sure you are writing the alias with the correct order of actual values:

alias gpll='git pull --rebase ${remote} ${branch}

While executing the command, you need to replace ${remote} and ${branch} with appropriate values, like the following:

gpll origin main

How to Create an Alias for Multiple Commands

There are cases where you need to use multiple commands sequentially. You can create an alias for that as well. Separate each command by && which executes the command on the right after the command on the left is executed.

gpsh='git pull --rebase && git push'

How to Delete an Alias

If you want to delete an alias from the current session, you can use the unalias command. This command takes only one argument — the alias name.

unalias my-alias-name

However, if you want to delete an alias saved in the configuration file, you need to delete it from the file itself. You can use a simple text editor like Nano to do this.

nano ~/.bashrc

Scroll down to the bottom to find all of your aliases and delete the ones you don't want anymore.

When you're done, you can exit the editor after saving. This is the place where I can introduce a meme about not being able to exit terminal-based text editors. But with Nano, it's very simple:

1. Press ctrl+x if you are on Linux and ^+x if you are on Mac.
2. Press Y to confirm changes
3. Hit Enter or return based on your operating system to save the file.

See? Nothing difficult :)

Caveats

There are two important things that you must remember while creating an alias.

Aliases are shell-restricted

Aliases are specific to the shell you are using. An alias created in one shell won't work in another shell.

You must create a new alias if you want to use it in a different session. There is no workaround to this caveat. One trick you can do is to manually save the alias to the config files of all the shells you use.

Aliases are session bound by default

Aliases are only available in the current session. If you open a new terminal window or log out, the alias will not be available.

Hence, it's recommended to always save an alias to a configuration file so you use it anytime you want.

TL;DR

• alias command adds shortcuts to a command or series of commands. alias shortcut='existing valid command.
• Save an alias to the shell's config file so it is persisted across sessions. Every shell has a unique config file. echo "nrd='npm run dev'" >> ~/.bashrc.
• Create a dynamic alias by substituting the dynamic value with a placeholder. The placeholder must be wrapped by ${}. alias gp='git pull origin ${branch} should be executed as gp main in the terminal.
• Add multiple commands to an alias by joining them with &&.
• Delete an alias by manually erasing it from the config file.

Wrapping up

I hope this blog helps you optimize your time and boosts your developer productivity. If it did, don't forget to share this with your peers so they can improve their efficiency as well.

What other techniques do you use to work efficiently? I would love to know more about it. I am most active on Twitter and Peerlist, if you want to say hi!

Until then, happy scripting! 👨‍💻

First we're going to review what an OS is and little history about them. Then, we'll review the main features and differences of the most popular operating systems (Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux).

The idea here is to explore their history, how and by whom they were developed, their business models, and their pros and cons. This will give you a better idea of how they work and which one to choose.

I'm going to share facts as well as my personal opinions about this subject. So keep in mind some of the things I mention here will be based on my own experience and analysis of the topic.

I'll also provide a lot of additional articles/videos you can take a look at in case you'd like to dive into a particular subject.

Without further ado, let's go!

Table of Contents

• What is an Operating System?

• A Bit of History of Operating Systems

• The Three Main OSs

  • Windows Operating System

  • MacOS

  • GNU/Linux

    • Debian

    • Ubuntu

    • Mint

    • Fedora

    • Red hat Enterprise Linux

    • Arch Linux

• Windows vs Mac vs Linux – OS Comparison

  • File systems

  • Shells

  • Package managers

  • Cost

  • Software compatibility

  • Hardware quality and compatibility

  • Ease of use

  • Security and stability

  • Community and culture

• Which Operating System to Choose

What is an Operating System?

According to Wikipedia,

"An operating system (OS) is software system that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs".

You can think about an OS as an "intermediary" program that stands between your computer and all other programs you run on it. It will manage crucial basic tasks such as file management, memory management, process management, input-output management, and controlling peripheral devices.

OSs were created to simplify the use of computers. Nowadays any given program can worry only about executing its core features and leave all basic system functionalities to the OS. But things weren't always like this...

A Bit of History of Operating Systems

In the old days (1940's-50's) programs were written to run on specific machines. That means a program could run on one and only one computer model.

If you wanted to execute the same program on a different computer model, programmers would need to write the whole program again because the hardware was configured in a different way. There was no layer of abstraction between the running program and the actual hardware.

Side comment: Do you ever stop and think about the work of a programmer back in those days? Programs were written in punch cards! =O It just blows my mind every time I think about it... It's amazing how low level things were at that time and the progress technology has achieved thanks to those early programmers.

By the 1960's industry giants such as IBM and AT&T started working on operating systems that could act as a layer of abstraction between hardware and software, which would simplify the implementation of new programs.

The most notorious of these projects was Unix, which was an OS developed in Bell labs at AT&T by developers Ken Thompson (who's currently working on the development of the Go programming language) and Dennis Ritchie (who also created the C programming language. Freaking coding legends, yup.).

Unix was hugely successful and inspired the creation of many other OSs with very similar characteristics. Those later on had a big influence on GNU/Linux and MacOS, which we're going to review in a sec.

By the 1980's, computers performance, accessibility, size, and price had improved to a point where the general public could buy them and use them for personal tasks. This made OSs shift from corporate-specific functions to general usage. And this takes us to the modern age...

If you're interested in a more detailed explanation of how OSs work and their history, here's a great video about it. This channel has an incredible crash course series about computer science too, I definetely recommend it! ;)

The Three Main OSs

In the modern days, when speaking about personal desktop/laptop computers, the three most used operating systems are Microsoft Windows (with around 80% market share), Apple MacOS (with around 15% market share), and GNU/Linux based OSs (with around 3% market share).

Regarding servers, around 80% run GNU/Linux and 20% run Windows. And talking about mobile devices, around 75% run Android (which uses the Linux kernel) and 25% run IOs (which is Apple's mobile OS).

We're going to briefly review each of them individually and later on compare all of them to identify their differences.

Windows Operating System

Windows' ancestor is MS-DOS, a text-based OS Microsoft released in 1981.

MS-DOS was developed to be compatible with IBM PCs and it was very successful. But to make it more accessible to the general public, it needed a GUI, and that's what Microsoft shipped in 1985 with Windows 1.0.

Since then, Windows has released many versions, like 95, 98, XP, Vista and so on... And has made itself the most widely used operating system worldwide.

Windows accessibility and the fact that it comes pre-installed in most personal computers (thanks to commercial agreements) have made this OS the most popular one to this day.

Here's a cool video that summarizes Windows history in just 3 minutes.

And if you're interested in knowing more about the history of Microsoft, here's another cool video about it.

Regarding its business model, I'd say Windows strategy is to flood the market and make its system as accessible and easy to use as possible. Their primary target customer is the general user, so not much particular importance is given to customization, security, or performance.

Windows is just the default OS for most people. It's the first one they get to know and it allows the user to easily run daily tasks (internet browsing, gaming, office work) without much config at all.

Windows is a private piece of software, meaning its source code isn't publicly available. Only Microsoft has access to it.

At first, users had to pay if they wanted to buy a copy of Windows OS or upgrade their Windows version. But with their latest releases, Windows has adopted a freemium model. Under this business model, the user can access most of the software functionalities for free and only needs to pay to access particular features.

The key to understanding this shift is to understand that Microsoft has a hugely diversified portfolio of businesses (Xbox - in Gaming, Azure - in cloud platforms, LinkedIn - in social networks, Bing - in search engines, GitHub... just to name a few). By making Windows free, they keep flooding the market and make it even easier for people to adopt it as the default OS.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Windows shows advertisements within the operating system. So it can be thought as an advertising platform as well.

Yet another cool video explaining this move here.

And a bizarre/funny/tiny-bit-scary example of Microsoft's old school marketing style.

MacOS

MacOS (previously called OS X) is a line of operating systems created by Apple. It comes pre-installed on all Macintosh computers, or Macs. The first version of it was released in 1984 and it was the first OS for personal computers to come with a built-in GUI.

MacOS is built on top of a UNIX-like OS, which is why this MacOS shares many common characteristics with GNU/Linux-derived ones.

In my opinion, Apple's business model is mainly based on differentiation and exclusivity. Unlike Microsoft, Apple makes both the hardware and software of their products, and Apple's software runs only on their own machines.

Apple has positioned itself as a top-tier manufacturer within the technology market, aiming to offer its customers high quality hardware and software, for a considerably higher price than most of the competition.

Exclusivity is promoted as a perk to users too, selling the idea of being part of a select group of people when owning an Apple product.

The fact that you can't run any software you want in their hardware, and that you can't install their software anywhere else than a Mac machine is part of the same idea. You need to buy the whole package if you want to be part of the group.

Apple makes most of its software and hardware differently and many times incompatible with others. Unlike Microsoft, whose idea is to make the product as widely available and easy to get to as possible, Apple aims to make their products top quality but pricey and incompatible with other hardware.

Another great marketing move by Apple has been their ability to profit on the hugely charismatic and influential personalities of people like Steve Jobs. They have taken advantage of his position and trajectory as an industry leader, innovator, and somehow "rebel", to implicitly translate those same values to their products.

Take a look at these ads to know what I mean:

• Think different ad

• 1984 ad

If you're interested in knowing more about the history of MacOS, here's a video about it.

GNU/Linux

GNU/Linux is the base of many open-source OSs. Unlike the examples we've just seen, GNU/Linux isn't a full operating system, but a set of programs/utilities and a kernel that many open-source OSs share.

Let's review each part separately.

GNU is a huge collection of programs and utilities that was started by Richard Stallman.

The GNU project was started in 1983 with the idea of developing a free UNIX-like OS (UNIX was property of AT&T so it wasn't available for free). Stallman started developing programs and utilities necessary for the OS, but one key piece was missing – the kernel.

The kernel is the heart of any OS. It's the piece of software that interacts the closest with the hardware and the rest of the OS sits on top of it. The Kernel is responsible for low-level tasks such as disk management, memory management, task management, and so on.

By 1991, a student from Helsinki university named Linus Torvalds started developing a Kernel for a UNIX-like OS.

In the following years, both projects started to interact and were joined together to form a solid base that any OS could use.

The key here is that both projects are open-source, and completely free software. This means:

• Anyone is free to run the program, for any purpose.

• Anyone is free to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what they wish.

• Anyone is free to redistribute copies of the original software.

• Anyone is free to distribute copies of modified versions of the software.

To better understand the free software movement, listen to this TED talk by Richard.

And then watch Richard speak Spanish and sing a song about free software (you gotta love this guy...).

The approach Stallman and Torvalds took in the development of GNU/Linux is radically different to the examples we've seen and to what the industry was used to up to that point.

Making GNU/Linux free was not only the right thing to do from its developers' points of view – it was also an excellent choice from the software quality point of view. This is because thousands of developers and companies around the world choose to collaborate for free in order to improve the system.

Some of the GNU/Linux distributions are known to be the most secure and stable OSs out there. They're used in key spheres such as banking, finance, government, and military.

A big part of this is thanks to the open-source model behind GNU/Linux, and that thousands of people around the world are able to review the code, fix bugs, and propose improvements constantly.

These two videos by the Linux foundation explain how Linux was born and how it currently operates.

As mentioned, GNU/Linux serves as the base for many other OSs. These OSs are called "distributions" or "distros" within the Linux world. All have in common that they're based on the same kernel and set of utilities. They can be thought of as "flavors" of Linux.

There's not much of a difference between certain distros, but others have distinctions worth mentioning. Let's quickly review the most used distros in order to better understand this:

Debian

Debian is an OS that contains only free, open-source software. Debian was started in 1993 and is still going strong and releasing new versions. Debian is known mainly for its stability and security, which makes it more conservative and "slow" when it comes to new releases.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is the most widely used GNU/Linux distro. It was created to take the core parts of Debian and improve on them more quickly. It also has a bigger focus on user friendliness and accessibility, which probably makes it the best option for someone coming from Windows or MacOS background.

Ubuntu normally offers releases every six months, with a more stable LTS (long term support) release every two years. Ubuntu is run by a company called Canonical.

Mint

Mint is a distro built on top of Ubuntu. Originally it was loved by many because it included media codecs and proprietary software that Ubuntu didn’t include.

Fedora

Fedora is a distro that focuses strongly on free software. Fedora is sponsored by a company called Red Hat, which at the same time is owned by IBM.

Red hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a commercial Linux distro managed by a company called Red Hat, which is listed on the Nasdaq. The OS is used mainly for servers and corporations. It’s based on the open-source Fedora project, but designed to be a stable platform with long-term support.

Red Hat uses trademark law to prevent Red Hat Enterprise Linux software from being redistributed. However, the core software is free and open-source.

Arch Linux

Arch is possibly the most hard-core Linux distro. It's very lightweight, flexible and minimal. With Arch, the user is completely in charge of configuring the system. The purpose of Arch is not to be mainstream. It's meant for users that have deep understanding of how a computer and an OS work, or are at least interested in learning.

You can learn more about Arch and how much you can customize it in this in-depth handbook.

Here's a great video that quickly summarizes the history of GNU/Linux and goes through the characteristics of the main distros. Fireship is another awesome channel I recommend. ;)

Regarding GNU/Linux business model, well they're not a business to start off. Both Linux and the Free software foundation (the organization behind GNU) are NGOs that operate thanks to donations.

Linux, for example, makes money through Platinum, Gold, Silver and Individual memberships.

Companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Cisco, Fujitsu, HPE, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Qualcomm and Samsung are all active contributors to the Linux foundation. This makes sense for companies because they all benefit from the knowledge and technology generated by Linux, and their donations may be tax deductible, too.

Regarding the distros, some of them are completely free and maintained by volunteers and others are maintained by companies and are free to particular users but commercialized for corporate users. Another business model used is free usage but charging for support for corporate users.

Today, Linux runs on most servers worldwide. It's used on most supercomputers and also on most cellphones (as mentioned above, Android uses the Linux kernel).

On the desktop/laptop side of things, Linux usage isn't nearly as widespread. And that's probably because it's not as widely available by default as Windows, and it's nowhere near as marketed as Mac.

Also, especially back in the day, the learning curve necessary to implement and use Linux was considerably higher than for the other two OS options.

Anyway, this situation has been changing lately as Linux distros put more focus on user-friendliness and it's easier than ever to get computers with Linux distros installed by default.

Windows vs Mac vs Linux - OS Comparison

OK, besides history, business model, and so on, what are the actual differences for the user when it comes to these three operating systems?

The short answer is not that much, actually. But let's review some differences in these operating systems' design, features, and user experience, and later on I'll give you my opinion on this.

File systems

The way Windows organizes files is different from the way Mac and GNU/Linux do.

Windows uses "drives". They're usually a C and D drive that store all the computer files, and separate drives for external devices such as CDs, USBs, and so on.

Mac and GNU/Linux have a similar file system that comes from UNIX. In these OSs there are no drives – everything in the computer is considered a file (even external devices) and all files are organized in directories that descend from a single root directory. The directory structure is formed as a tree that has a unique root.

This doesn't necessarily make much of a difference for the end user, but is something to keep in mind if you're used to navigating one type of file system or the other.

Shells

Both GNU/Linux and Mac have Bash as their default shell, while Windows has its own shell that uses a different syntax.

As developers and avid terminal users, learning Bash is probably the best choice as this knowledge can be more easily translated to all OSs than the Windows shell. Especially taking into account that GNU/Linux runs on most servers worldwide, which is one of the main occasions when you'd need to use the terminal to interact with the computer.

If you'd like to know more about shells and terminal usage, I recently wrote an article about that.

Package managers

Mac and GNU/Linux come with package managers installed by default. A package manager is a piece of software that allows you to install, update, and uninstall programs from the terminal, just by entering a few commands.

They're super helpful, especially when you're installing and uninstalling things constantly, as it's much more efficient to install programs through package managers than manually.

Mac's package manager is called homebrew. On GNU/Linux, the default package manager depends on the distro. For example, Ubuntu comes with APT, Arch comes with Pacman, and so on.

All package managers function in a similar way, but there are some differences in the syntax used for each. It's also important to mention that you can install and run a different package manager than the default.

Windows doesn't come with a default package manager. If you want one, you need to install it first. One of the package managers available for Windows is Chocolatey.

Cost

As already mentioned, most GNU/Linux distros are completely free for anyone to use. Windows has a freemium model currently and MacOS runs only on Mac computers, which are quite pricey as you may know.

Software compatibility

Windows is the most widely used OS, and thanks to that most software is adapted to it. Even though less popular, MacOS is similar to Windows in this regard.

Back in the day, Linux wasn't compatible with many programs out there, but this has started to change recently, especially with the most popular distros like Ubuntu.

Hardware quality and compatibility

When it comes to hardware, only Apple has direct responsibility for the computers that the OS runs on. And Apple's hardware is some of the best out there.

As a company, Apple is focused on providing top quality products, so their newest computers tend to be the ones with best performance all across the market.

Given that Apple designs and develops both hardware and software, it's possible that the compatibility between the machine and the OS is tuned finer than with Windows or GNU/Linux.

On the Windows and GNU/Linux side, hardware quality is completely up to what the user decides or can afford to buy. The good thing here is that you can install the OS wherever you want.

This is particularly cool when thinking about installing lightweight Linux distros on older computers that can't handle the requirements of bigger and more consuming OSs like Windows.

Ease of use

Windows and Mac are really simple and user-friendly OSs. Regarding GNU/Linux, it depends on the distro you choose. As mentioned, distros like Ubuntu are practically as easy as Windows or Mac, and others like Arch are intended for advanced computer users.

Security and stability

Some GNU/Linux distros are considered the most secure and stable ones nowadays. The fact that the code is available to everyone isn't a security threat as you may think at first – but rather it's an advantage. Bugs can be identified and worked on quicker, and when a security breach is identified lots of people can work on it and propose fixes.

Windows, on the other hand, is considered the least secure and stable of the three. Given that it's the most popular OS, most malware is developed to attack Windows OS too.

Community and culture

If you're interested in learning more about a particular OS, studying how it works, how to modify it and create projects based on it, GNU/Linux is definitely the way to go. It's the only one that has its code available to anyone and its online community is huge.

Even though GNU/Linux isn't as widely used as the other two OSs, I find Linux users are usually people interested in software and technology, and people who like to talk, learn, and share knowledge about it.

Mac has its set of fans too and is particularly popular among creatives (graphical designers, video editors, animators, and so on).

And finally Windows is commonly used by the general user and in corporate environments.

Regarding organization culture, I think it could be interesting to visualize it in the working environment of the people who created this OSs:

• Take a look at Apple's headquarters

• Bill Gate's "home office"

• And Linux Torvalds home office

If you'd like to see a more in depth comparison these three OSs, Zach Gollwitzer has a very good video about this topic (another great channel to follow ;)).

Which Operating System to Choose

I've had the chance to use all three OSs recently, and as I mentioned, I don't think the differences between each of them are THAT big.

In my opinion, Linux is a smart choice because it works great, it's widely used across the tech industry (so all knowledge can be translated to work environments), and if you're interested in learning more about how it works there's a huge community that supports that. And most important of all... it's free!

I mean, if we have one of the best and most widely used pieces of software in human history within our reach and completely for free, why would we pay to get anything else?

Regarding other matters, I think most things you can do on GNU/Linux you can also do on Mac and Windows, at least for most users. It probably wont make a huge difference in your daily life, at least from my perspective.

About hardware, buying a modern Apple computer is almost a guarantee of having a great performing machine (if you can afford it). But if you know a bit about hardware or take the time to investigate around, you can easily find very good choices too for a smaller price.

At the end, I think it's important to know what you're using and know the options out there. As computer users, it's a good idea to be aware of facts and differences, and avoid being distracted by marketing campaigns.

I also don't believe in placing too much judgment or weight in one choice or the other. The fact that someone chooses an open-source OS doesn't make that person smarter or superior that someone who doesn't... Just as owning the latest Mac computer won't make you a better programmer.

Long story short, whatever you choose is fine as long as your system allows you to do what you want.

As always, I hope you enjoyed the article and learned something new. If you want, you can also follow me on linkedin or twitter.

Cheers and see you in the next one! =D

And what's often worse than the problems themselves is that they seem to occur when we're in the middle of an important task that needs to get done.

The computer starts to significanlty slow down and an app we are using might freeze for a while. The computer's fan then starts to get louder and louder and that dreaded – but colorful – spinning wheel may even make an appearance.

Fortunately, there are certain steps you can take to fix different problems, get to the root of them, and see what caused them in the first place.

In this article you'll learn about the essential Task Manager tool on MacOS. You'll see how using it gives you insight to help diagnose and troubleshoot problems.

The First Step of Troubleshooting

The first action to take when an application or program you're using freezes and is no longer responsive is to use the following keyboard shortcut: Command Option Esc.

Hold down those three keys at the same time.

This will launch the Force Quit Applications Manager window:

This window shows a list of all the applications that are currently open on your computer.

As the helpful instructions indicate, select the application that has frozen and is no longer responsive. Then next click the Force Quit button.

💡 Another way to access this window is by selecting the Apple icon at the top left corner of your screen by clicking on it. A dropdown menu will appear and from there select "Force Quit".

The application you selected will be closed and terminated immediately.

It's a handy and quick solution for closing a program that is not working and is unable to stop properly.

But this method doesn't give much information about what could be causing the problem. It's useful for just force-quitting an application.

MacOS Activity Monitor

If you were a Windows user in the past, you may be familiar with the Task Manager for troubleshooting problems.

The Activity Monitor is the equivalent system for measuring your computer's activity on a Mac Operating System - it is just under a different name.

It shares a lot of similarities with the Window's counterpart. It locates and shows all the processes currently running and how different applications affect the computer's performance.

So, to dig a bit deeper and gather more information on how the program that has frozen affects your computer, it's helpful to launch the Activity Monitor.

From there you can close or force quit programs, background processes which are not open and visible by default, or apps that have frozen up and are unresponsive and hanging.

How to Open the Activity Monitor

The easiest and most straightforward way to open the Activity Monitor is with the Spotlight button.

The Spotlight button is located in the menu bar at the top right corner of your Mac's screen and looks like a magnifying glass.

To access the Spotlight button you can just click on it:

💡 Another way to access Spotlight is by using the Command Spacebar keyboard shortcut.

Then, the Spotlight Search will appear. Start enetering the input for what you're looking for – in this case type the words Activity Monitor and it should come up.

Hit Return and double click on the first option that appears.

Once you've completed those steps and opened the Activity Monitor, you can optionally keep it in the Dock for easy and fast access in the future.

Click and hold down on the application's icon. From there, once the dropdown menu appears, select Option and then Keep in Dock.

Now the application is pinned in your Dock.

How to Use the Activity Monitor

An Overview Of The Five Tabs in Activity Monitor

Once the Activity Monitor Window is open, you can take a deeper look into the current processes that are running on your computer.

There are five tabs available at the top of the window:

In the "CPU" tab which is the first one opened by default, you can see information on CPU usage.

For example, here you can see how the activities are affecting the processor's performance and how many processor resources are being used. It shows which applications are doing the heaviest work.

This is one of the two most useful tabs to check when problems occur. When the fan starts getting loud, the computer heats up and your battery starts going down fast. Check this tab to see which application is consuming most of the CPU's resources.

Quitting that app may then stop the problem.

In the "Memory" tab you can check memory usage and load. You see statistics and information on how much RAM (Random Access Memory) the different applications are consuming at the time.

This is the second most important tab to check when an application freezes. When an application freezes and your computer really slows down, it could be a sign that RAM is being overused and maxed out. It could also indicate that your computer is running out of sufficient RAM and that's why it is not functioning to the best of its abilities.

The "Energy" tab shows how much energy and power is being used by each application for each process that is running. This tab shows which applications are consuming the most energy and are draining battery life.

The "Disk Tab" shows the disk usage. It indicates how much data is being read from and written to your disk storage device. Here is also a good place to detect potential malware.

Lastly, the "Network" tab shows which applications on your Mac send and receive the most data from the network.

You can select either of these tabs to further investigate the issue you're having.

How to Search for Applications in Activity Monitor

There might be a long list of running processes.

To narrow them down and search for a specific application, use the search bar that is located at the top right hand corner of the window.

Type the name of the app you're looking for and if it is currently up and running it will appear as a result.

How to View More Information About Applications in Activity Monitor

First, select a particular application from the list of current running processeses that you're interested in learning more about by clicking on it.

Once you've selected it, that line will be highlighted.

Then, click on the i button (for Inspecting) at the top left hand corner.

A pop-up window will appear, with additional information on the application.

This window will have three different tabs: "Memory", "Statistics" and "Open Files and Ports".

In Memory you'll see how much RAM is running.

In the Statistis tab you can see the number of threads, the CPU time, and more technical insight.

The "Open Files and Ports" tab will show all the names of files that are currently running.

How to Force Quit an Application in Activity Monitor

To quit or force quit any of the processes listed in the Activity Monitor, select the application you want to stop from running.

Then select the x button at the top left hand corner, which acts as the Stop button.

You'll see a pop up window appear asking you to confirm that you want to terminate the process. It will mention the name of the application you want to stop running in double quotation marks.

Select "Quit", and if that fails to close the app, choose "Force Quit" and the application will close immediately.

Keep in mind that you may end up losing data if the app froze and you didn't manage to save any progress or files you were using.

An Alternative to Activity Monitor

If you're a developer you may prefer working with the terminal.

Using just one command, you can see a list of the current running processes.

Navigate to spotlight again and this time type in "Terminal". The built-in terminal application for MacOS will launch.

You'll see the command prompt which is right after your computer's username.

By default, if you haven't applied any custom styles for the Zsh shell, the command prompt is a % sign.

A shell is a computer program that interacts with the underlying operating system through text-based commands it receives as input.

Zsh is one of the many different Unix shell types available. The Zsh shell is the default shell for MacOS Catalina and later.

After the command prompt, enter the command top and hit return.

You'll see a list of all the current running processes:

To stop this, enter Control C which sends a signal to the command to terminate. You'll be back to the command prompt immediately.

When the top command is executing, you may see a process that is using too many resources. It may be a good idea to kill it, which is another word for terminating a process.

To do so, first locate the PID (Process ID). This number is located in the first column at the left hand corner when the top command is executed.

To continue, make sure you are at the command prompt.

Then, type the kill -9 PID, where PID the number of the process you want to terminate.

For example, if I wanted to force quit the terminal application I am currently using which has a PID of 7728, I would write the following: kill -9 7728.

The application will then close immediately.

Conclusion

Thanks for making it to the end. Hopefully you found this helpful and were able to troubleshoot any problems you were facing with your Mac computer.

You learned about the Activity Monitor which is the equivalent of the Task Manager available on Windows PCs. You also leared how to use the command line to terminate processes that use too many of the computer's resources.

Thanks for reading!

Here is what the Quick Notes feature looks like when you move your cursor to the lower right hand corner of the screen:

The New Quick Note feature in the lower right hand screen of MacOS Monterey

I like a lot of MacOS Monterey's features, but I didn't like this popping up so frequently when I was moving my mouse around. So I disabled it. You can do this, too, and it only takes a few seconds.

How to Disable the New Quick Note Feature in MacOS Monterey

First of all, navigate to your MacOS preferences.

Step #1: Open System Preferences

The fastest way to do this is to press Command + Space to open up Spotlight.

Then type "pref" and you should see a System Preferences option.

MacOS Spotlight is a helpful way to open up applications quickly. You can open it by pressing Command + Space

Step #2: Open Mission Control Preferences

Click the Mission Control icon pointed to above

Step #3: Click the "Hot Corners..." button

The Hot Corners button is in the lower left-hand corner

Step #4: Disable the Quick Note Hot Corner Gesture

You can now disable the Quick Note hot corner. If you prefer, you could instead assign this hot corner to something else. I personally find these hot corners more distracting than helpful, and turn all four of them off.

Remember: anything you can do with a hot corner, you can do with the MacOS built-in Spotlight feature.

Click the drop down for the lower-right hand corner and set it to "–" which means nothing will happen when you move your cursor to the lower right hand corner of your screen.

Step #5: Click the OK Button and Close Mission Control

Congratulations. You have disabled the Quick Note hot corner. It shouldn't pop up anymore.

I hope this has been helpful. Have a fun, productive day.

If you have both Apple and Windows devices, you might want to share files between them over a local network. And this is what Apple's Bonjour service makes happen under the hood.

In this guide, I will take you through what Bonjour is and how you can get it running on your Windows 10 computer.

What is Apple's Bonjour Program?

Bonjour is Apple's implementation of zero-configuration networking (zeroconf). It allows devices running both Windows and Apple operating systems (like macOS and iOS) to connect and share resources without any configuration settings.

With Bonjour, you can locate other devices such as scanners and printers on a local network and connect with them. You can also share files irrespective of the operating system you are using, whether it's Windows, macOS, or Linux.

How Bonjour Works on a Computer

Bonjour is not a regular software product. Unlike other software and apps, you don't get to use Bonjour directly.

Instead, Bonjour runs in the background and connects devices together by using a "link addressing scheme", which automatically assigns IP addresses to devices on a local network.

Examples of apps that use Bonjour include iTunes, Skype, iChat, and iPhoto.

How to Get Bonjour Up and Running on Windows 10

Unlike Apple devices which work hand in hand with Bonjour, you might have to manually install Bonjour on your Windows 10 computer.

Bonjour is not available to be downloaded as a standalone app, so you'll need to download an app that uses it.

It used to come attached with Mac apps such as iTunes and the Safari browser in a zip folder, but these days, the iTunes app may download it for you over a WiFi network.

However, you can install Bonjour for your Windows 10 computer by downloading the Bonjour SDK (Software Development Kit) from the Apple Developer Website.

Make sure you select Bonjour SDK for Windows as shown below:

Once you do that, you will have to sign in with your Apple ID. If you don't have one, you can create it.

When you sign in successfully, you will be presented with different versions of Bonjour SDK. Download the one you want and install it by opening up the installer and following the prompts.

When the Bonjour SDK gets installed, the Bonjour program gets installed with it as well.

Do you need Bonjour on your Windows 10 computer?

If you use an app that depends on Bonjour to run on a Windows computer, you definitely need Bonjour for the app to function effectively.

In addition, if you use devices that cut across multiple operating systems such as macOS, Windows, and Linux, you might need to connect them together to share resources such as files and devices – and you'll need Bonjour for that to happen. This will also give you the advantage of zero-configuration.

Lastly, if you don't use an Apple device like a Mac but you have friends who do, you should consider getting Bonjour installed on your device, so you can share files and other resources with them.

How to Stop or Uninstall Bonjour on Windows 10

If you stop using an app that depends on Bonjour to work, or you want to say goodbye for any other reason, you might want to stop Bonjour. You can do this from the Task Manager.

Step 1: Click on Start, or press the WIN (Windows) key on your keyboard.

Step 2: Search for "task manager" and hit ENTER.

Step 3: Click on the Services tab. Here you will see Bonjour Service, which is sometimes available as "mDNSResponder.exe".

Step 4: Right-click on it and select “Stop”.

To uninstall Bonjour, you can do it in the Settings app.

Step 1: Click on Start, or press the WIN (Windows) key on your keyboard, and Select Settings to open the Settings app.

Step 2: Select Apps.

Step 3: On the Apps & Features tab, scroll till you find Bonjour, or search for it.

Step 4: Select uninstall, and again, uninstall.

Please note that to get rid of the Bonjour service totally, you might have to uninstall the app using it as well. If you installed Bonjour through the Bonjour SDK, make sure you uninstall the Bonjour SDK as well.

Conclusion

Bonjour is a useful service that gives you more flexibility if you work with devices that use multiple operating systems.

This guide showed youß what the Bonjour service is, what it does, and how you can have more control over it on your Windows 10 computer.

Thank you for reading. If you find this article helpful, please share it with your friends and family.

How to Write the Not Equal Sign on Desktop Devices

On Windows: Use the Character Map

The Character Map is a useful utility from which you can select all possible characters.

To get to the character map, click on Start, and then navigate to Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools, and then finally click on Character Map.

You can find the not equal sign in the mathematical symbols. Then you can just copy and paste the sign from that character map where you need it.

Not Equal Sign Keyboard Shortcut On Mac

If you are using a Mac, typing the does not equal sign is as easy as typing Option+= (This may vary between languages and locations).

Alternatively you can press Control+Command+Space bar to open the Character Viewer. Then you can scroll through the available emoji and symbols until you find the Math Symbols section. There, you'll find the Does Not Equal symbol (or you can use the Search bar).

The Character Viewer. The Does Not Equal sign can be found in the Math Symbols section.

How to Write the Not Equal Sign in Microsoft Office Suite

Use the Insert Symbol tool

In the Microsoft Office suite, you can add the not equal sign to your document using the Symbol tool in the Insert tab.

The Symbol tool in Excel

The Symbol tool in Word

The Symbol tool in PowerPoint

Clicking on Symbol (or More Symbols... for Word) opens a window from where you can select the symbols. You can find the not equal symbol toward the end, in the subset of Mathematical Operators.

You can reach it faster from the drop down menu that lets you select the subset. Once selected, the Insert button will Insert the symbol in your document.

Use a Keyboard Shortcut

You can also type Alt+8800, and this will type the does not equal sign in any of the Suite Office apps.

Microsoft Word Only Keyboard Shortcut

In Microsoft Word only there is an additional shortcut that will let you type the does not equal sign – just type 2260 and then press Alt+x and the ≠ sign will substitute for the numbers.

How to Type the Not Equal Sign On Mobile

Most mobile keyboards have different panels, one for letters, and one or more additional symbol panels. The equal sign is often included in one of those non-letter panels. Try long-pressing on the equal sign, and the not equal sign may be included.

The screenshot above is for the iPhone keyboard. On it, you can find the equal sign in the second symbol panel.

For Android keyboards, you'll need to take a couple more steps to reach the symbol panel that includes the equal and not equal signs. You can usually navigate between the panels using the buttons that have multiple symbols in them, like ABC or 123.

How to Write the Not Equal Sign in HTML

In HTML, you can use one of the following codes to write the ≠ sign:

• ≠
• ≠
• ≠

Special characters are best included using the codes that render them instead of typing the symbol directly.

Conclusion

You probably won't need to type the not equal symbol that often. But when you need it, it's useful to know how to type it on your laptop or your smart phone using the keyboard or alternative methods.

Screenshots are useful in many cases, like when you're writing a blog post and you want to use images that will drive home the points you are making.

This guide will show you how to do just that using a couple of simple and fast keyboard shortcuts.

At the end, I'll share a handy feature that will give you more options when you want to capture something on your computer screen.

Let's get started!

How to take a screenshot on a Mac

To take a screenshot on your Mac, press and hold down at the same time the following keys: Command Shift 3

This will take a photo of your entire screen.

You'll see a thumbnail pop up at the bottom right corner of your screen. This is the case for every type of screenshot you can take on a Mac – you'll always be able to see a preview of it.

You can click on that to edit your screenshot.

By default all your screenshots get saved automatically to your Desktop folder, with the name 'Screenshot <date> at <time>.jpeg".

How to take a screenshot of part of your screen on Mac

If you want to take a photo of a specific part of your screen, hold and press down at the same time the following keys: Command Shift 4.

This will make your pointer turn into what's called a crosshair cursor.

Next, press on your trackpad or mouse. This will then allow you to click on and move the cursor to where you want the start and end of your screenshot to be.

Drag and move the grey box that appears in the specific area you want to target – you can make this as wide or as narrow as you wish.

Release the trackpad/mouse and the photo of the area of your choosing will be captured and saved. If you change your mind, press esc before releasing.

How to take a screenshot of a specific window on Mac

You can take a screenshot of a window, whether it's only a menu or the whole window screen.

Press and hold at the same time the following keys: Command Shift 4 Space

It's like the previous command, but the Scace bar is the final key that you press after and while holding down the other three keys.

This time, the pointer changes into a camera icon.

You can move your trackpad/mouse to select an area. If you only want the top menu you can select that, or the doc at the bottom, or the whole browser/desktop window.

You'll see that the area you're pointing to is getting highlighted.

Click on your trackpad/mouse to capture what you want.

If you change your mind, press esc before releasing your trackpad/mouse. Otherwise your screenshot will be taken and saved.

Mac Screenshot toolbar

Using just your keyboard for screenshots is great, but Mac has an added feature.

While using this feature, you're able to record your screen instead of just having the option of taking a static photo.

Or you can change the screenshot settings – like for example setting a timer before the screenshot is captured and saving your screenshot location.

This time, press the keys Command Shift 5.

You'll see this pop up at the bottom of your screen by default:

In the first portion, you have the option to capture the entire screen, a single window, or a scepific portion of your screen.

To do so, select the option you want and press "Capture".

The rectangles with the circle at their bottom right side are options to record the whole screen or just a section of the screen, respectively.

Hit the record button and when you are done, press the "Stop recording" button that appears during your recording at the top menu on your screen.

You also have ways to customize, with the "Options" menu:

Conclusion

And there you have it. These are some simple ways to take screenshots using your Mac, along with an option to record your screen at the end.

Modern Mac computers don't use PRAM. Instead, they use NVRAM, or non-volatile random access memory.

But PRAM and NVRAM serve the same function. They both store some important information about your system like the startup disk, timezone, and so on.

If you're having some issues with your Mac computer, you may want to reset the PRAM / NVRAM. Here's how to do that:

1. Shut down your Mac computer
2. Turn on the computer, and immediately hold down these keys: Option + Command + P + R
3. Hold down the keys until you hear the startup sound after about 20 seconds

Here's a video that goes over how to reset the PRAM / NVRAM and SMC (system management controller):

Related Tech Terms:

• Macintosh Definition
• RAM Definition

The entire Python community has now moved on to using Python 3.x (the current version as of writing this is 3.9). And Python 4.x will be out soon, but it will be completely backward compatible.

If you try to run Python from your MacOS terminal, you'll even see this warning:

WARNING: Python 2.7 is not recommended. This version is included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. Future versions of macOS will not include Python 2.7. Instead, it is recommended that you transition to using 'python3' from within Terminal.

Until Apple decides to set Python 3.x, as the default you're going to have to install it yourself.

A Single Command to Run Python 3

For some of you reading this, this command may be enough. You can run Python 3 using this command (with the 3 at the end).

python3

If that's all you came for, no worries. Have a fun day and happy coding.

But if you want a proper Python version control system to keep track of various versions – and have fine-grain control over which version you use – this tutorial will show you exactly how to accomplish this.

By the way, if you're wondering why I keep referring to Python 3.x – the x is a stand-in for sub-versions (or point releases as developers call them.) This means any version of Python 3.

How to Install Homebrew on Mac

First you need to install Homebrew, a powerful package manager for Mac.

Open up your terminal. You can do this by using MacOS spotlight (command+space) and typing "terminal".

Now that you're in a command line, you can install the latest version of Homebrew by running this command:

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

Your terminal will ask for Super User-level access. You will need to type your password to run this command. This is the same password you type when you log into your Mac. Type it and hit enter.

A screenshot of my heavily customized terminal. Your terminal will probably look different from this.

Homebrew will ask you to confirm you want to install the following. You have to press enter to continue. (Or press any other key if you get cold feet.)

How to Install pyenv to Manage Your Python Versions

Now let's take a moment to install PyEnv. This library will help you switch between different versions of Python (in case you need to run Python 2.x for some reason, and in anticipation of Python 4.0 coming).

Run this command:

brew install pyenv

PyEnv installing

Now you can install the latest version of Python.

How to Use pyenv to Install Python or Update Your Python Version

Now you just need to run the following command:

pyenv install 3.9.2

Note that you can substitute 3.9.2 for whatever the latest version of Python is. For example, once Python 4.0.0 comes out, you can run this:

pyenv install 4.0.0

Troubleshooting pyenv Installation

If you encounter an error that "C compiler cannot create executables" then the simplest way to solve this is to reinstall Apple's Xcode.

Xcode is a tool created by Apple that includes all the C libraries and other tools that Python uses when it runs on MacOS. Xcode is a whopping 11 gigabytes, but you'll want to be up-to-date. You may want to run this while you're sleeping.

You can get the latest version of Apple's Xcode here. I had to do this after upgrading to MacOS Big Sur, but once I did, all the following commands worked fine. Just re-run the above pyenv install 3.9.2 and it should now work.

How to Set Up Your MacOS PATH for pyenv (Bash or ZSH)

First you need to update your Unix path to pave a way for PyEnv to be able to interact with your system.

This is a long explanation of how PATH works in MacOS (and Unix), straight from the pyenv GitHub repo.

When you run a command like python or pip, your operating system searches through a list of directories to find an executable file with that name. This list of directories lives in an environment variable called PATH, with each directory in the list separated by a colon:

/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

Directories in PATH are searched from left to right, so a matching executable in a directory at the beginning of the list takes precedence over another one at the end. In this example, the /usr/local/bin directory will be searched first, then /usr/bin, then /bin.

And here is their explanation of what a Shim is. I'm quoting them at length again because I really can't explain this better myself.

pyenv works by inserting a directory of shims at the front of your PATH:

$(pyenv root)/shims:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

Through a process called rehashing, pyenv maintains shims in that directory to match every Python command across every installed version of Python—python, pip, and so on.

Shims are lightweight executables that simply pass your command along to pyenv.

Here's how to update your .bash_profile in Bash (which is installed in MacOS by default):

echo 'export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Then run:

echo 'export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Note: if you do not have a /bin directory in your pyenv_root folder (you may only have a /shims directory) you may need to instead run this version of the command:

`echo 'export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/shims:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile`

Then you want to add PyEnv Init to your terminal. Run this command if you're using Bash (again, this is the default with MacOS):

echo -e 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then\n  eval "$(pyenv init -)"\nfi' >> ~/.bash_profile

Now reset your terminal by running this command:

reset

How to Set Up Your MacOS PATH for pyenv in ZSH or OhMyZSH

If instead of using the Mac default Bash, you're using ZSH (or OhMyZSH) like I am, you'll want to edit the .zshrc file instead:

echo 'export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

Then run this:

echo -e 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then\n  eval "$(pyenv init --path)"\n  eval "$(pyenv init -)"\nfi' >> ~/.zshrc

How to Set a Version of Python to Global Default (Bash or ZSH)

You can set the latest version of Python to be global, meaning it will be the default version of Python MacOS uses when you run Python applications.

Run this command:

pyenv global 3.9.2

Again, you can replace 3.9.2 with whatever the latest version is.

Now you can verify that this worked by checking the global version of Python:

pyenv versions

You should see this output:

The * means that version is now the global default

The Final Step: Close Your Terminal and Restart it

Once you've restarted your terminal, you run the python command and you'll launch the new version of Python instead of the old one.

Yay. Python 3.9.2 and no deprecation warnings

Congratulations. Thank you for reading this, and happy coding.

The term first rose to popularity with the Apple Macintosh computer, released in 1984. The Apple Macintosh, or Macintosh 128K, was one of the first computers to feature a graphical user interface (GUI).

With the success of the Apple Macintosh, the company continued to use the Mac brand name. Later computers like the Macintosh II and Macintosh Portable used the name. And the main operating system became known as Mac OS.

These days, the term Macintosh or Mac refers to devices like the Macbook Air, Pro, and iMac, which all run macOS.

Though Apple computers are personal computers, "Mac" is often used to describe Apple computers running macOS. In this context, computers running Windows are referred to as PCs.

Check out the old Mac vs. PC ads for a good example of this branding in action.

Related Tech Terms:

• PC Definition

Which Ruby do you have?

MacOS comes with a "system Ruby" pre-installed.

Use the which command to see where Ruby is installed:

$ which ruby
/usr/bin/ruby

If you see /usr/bin/ruby, it is the pre-installed macOS system Ruby.

It's fine to use the system Ruby for running sysadmin scripts, as long as you don't alter the system Ruby by attempting to update it or add gems.

But you don't want to use it when you are developing projects in Ruby.

Ruby for development

For developing projects with Ruby, you should Install Ruby with Homebrew or use a version manager such as asdf, chruby, rbenv, or rvm.

A version manager helps if you're juggling multiple projects and can't update all at once. For a guide that compares version managers and shows the best way to install Ruby, see my article Install Ruby on a Mac.

But why not use the macOS default Ruby? Let's take a look at the reasons why it's a bad idea to use the Mac default Ruby for development.

Gem installation hassles

RubyGems are the ready-made software libraries that make development easy and fun in Ruby. Most Ruby projects use at least a few gems.

If you use the Mac system Ruby, running gem install will try to save gems to the system Ruby directory /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0. That directory is owned by root, the system superuser. Ordinary users are not allowed to write to it (and you really shouldn't alter this folder).

If you try to install a gem, for example gem install rails, you'll get a permissions error:

ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::FilePermissionError)
You don't have write permissions for the /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0 directory

It violates system security

Unix-based systems are powerful, so there's a workaround. You can install gems as a superuser to override the permissions restriction. But don't do this!

$ sudo gem install rails

Any time you are about to run sudo, you should stop and ask if you're about to shoot yourself in the foot.

In this case, you need sudo because you're altering system files that are managed by the OS. Don't do it! You may leave the system in a broken or compromised state. Even worse, a gem might contain malicious code that tampers with your computer.

Gem management

Experienced developers use Bundler to install gems and manage their dependencies.

Imagine you've got projects that use different versions of a gem (maybe there was a new gem release between your projects). Or maybe two different gems in your project rely on different versions of a dependent gem.

Bundler uses a Gemfile in your project directory to keep track of the gems you need. If you were to use sudo to install gems with the system Ruby, you'd end up with a mess of incompatible gems in the system Ruby directory.

You can work around the systems permission problem by installing Bundler with a command that uses your home directory for gems. But it's easier to install Ruby with Homebrew or use a version manager and use the Bundler that comes installed, which will correctly set up your local development environment.

Use the newest Ruby

When you start a project, use the newest Ruby release (it's 3.0 at the time this was written).

The system Ruby in macOS Catalina or Big Sur is Ruby 2.6.3, which is old. If you're just starting with Ruby, install with Homebrew and work on a project with Ruby 3.0. When you start building another project, it may be time to install a version manager so you can juggle projects with different Ruby versions.

MacOS after Big Sur

MacOS Big Sur is now the current version. Apple says:

"Scripting language runtimes such as Python, Ruby, and Perl are included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. Future versions of macOS won’t include scripting language runtimes by default, and might require you to install additional packages."

If you're reading this at the end of 2021, the system Ruby may already be gone. If not, prepare yourself by installing Ruby with Homebrew or a version manager.

Enjoy Ruby

For developers planning to build web applications with Rails, I've written a guide, Install Rails on a Mac, which goes beyond Install Ruby on a Mac to show how to pick a version manager that will work with Node as well as Ruby.

Enjoy the pleasure of coding in Ruby! After all, it is known as a language dedicated to programmer happiness. But remember, the system Ruby is there for macOS, not for you.

In that case, you'll want to take a screenshot of either all or part of your screen. Taking a screenshot is like taking a photograph of something on your screen. It preserves whatever you're looking at exactly and sends it to your downloads so you can access it whenever you like.

In this tutorial, we'll see how you can take a screenshot on your Mac with just a few keystrokes.

How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac – Part of the Screen

The easiest way to take a screenshot, in my opinion, is to use a simple keyboard shortcut: Command+Shift+4. The shortcut gives you the option to select a portion of the screen or to screenshot the whole screen.

If you just want to capture a part of your screen (that you choose), simply follow the instructions below (Steps 1-4). If you want to capture the whole screen, you'll find instructions to do that afterwards.

Step 1: Press Command + Shift + 4

If you just press Command + Shift + 4, your cursor will turn into a little crosshair-looking icon.

Note that you want to hold down each key until you're done keying in the shortcut, so press and hold the command key (and keep holding it down), then press the Shift key (while holding the command key, and keep holding the shift key as well), and then press the 4 key (while holding those other keys). Then you can release all three keys.

Press Command+Shift+4, click where you want the screenshot to start, and hold down your click (don't release it)

Step 2: Click and drag the cursor

To take the screenshot, simply click in the spot where you want your screenshot to start (don't release the click) and drag the cursor to where you want the screenshot to finish.

Drag over and down (while still holding the click press) until you cover all the area you want captured

Step 3: Release your cursor click

When you've got all the area covered that you want to capture, release your click press and you'll hear a little capture sound (if your sound is on). A minified form of the image will appear in the bottom right corner of your screen, like this:

The screenshot image will go to the bottom right corner of your screen

Step 4: Edit and save your screenshot

You can click on that mini image, and it will be opened in an editor. There you can mark it up, add text and arrows (like I've done above), and send it anywhere on your computer that you like. Just click the icon in the upper right that looks like a pen tip and the editor menu will open:

Click the pen tip icon...

...and the editor menu bar will pop up

Once you've marked up your screenshot to your heart's desire, just save it (Command+s does the trick). Then you'll be able to find it on your desktop, in your "Recents", or in your downloads.

How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac – the Whole Screen

If you want to capture the whole screen, you'll start off the same way – by pressing Command+Shift+4.

Then, instead of dragging the cursor to capture just the part of the screen you want, press the space bar. (You'll do this immediately after keying in the shortcut.) This changes the screen capture field to be the entire screen.

The cursor will turn into a camera icon and your whole screen will be highlighted in a light pinkish-red color. To capture the screenshot, simply click on the camera icon, and voilà - you have a full screen screenshot.

How to Take a Screen Recording on a Mac

What if a still image isn't enough to show what you want to show? What if you want to record yourself demoing a new product or writing instructions to a tutorial?

Mac makes that pretty easy, too. Simply key in Shift+Command+5. You'll see a menu pop up that looks like this:

Screen recording menu, courtesy of Apple Support (fun fact - you can't take a screen shot while you're screen recording!).

Select whether you want to record the whole screen or just part of it (those screen-looking icons on that menu) and then, when you're ready, hit record. If you want sound, just make sure you enable your machine's microphone in the "Options" drop-down menu.

To stop recording, either press the stop button or key in Command+Control+Esc.

And there you have it - now you know how to take screenshots on a Mac with just a couple keystrokes.

Have you ever tried to use an application on your laptop, only to find that your cursor is a spinning beach ball?

You can move the beach ball around the screen, but no matter what you do, you can't seem to click anything.

You can't save your work. You can't close the application. You can't edit anything. This is a frozen application.

In this situation, there are only two things you can do:

1. Force the application to close and lose any unsaved changes (also known as force quit)
2. Or wait and hope that the application unfreezes itself

How to Force Quit a Mac App Control+Alt+Delete Style

Use this option if you need to use the application straight away. Be aware that you will lose any work that you haven’t saved.

First, open the application and try one last time to close it the standard way, by clicking the red 'x' in the top left of the application:

Click the red 'x' to close the application in the standard way

If your cursor is still a spinning beach ball, and clicking the 'x' doesn't close the application, then it's time to force the application to close.

On a PC, use the keyboard shortcut to force an application to close down is control + alt + delete. You hold down all three buttons at the same time. And you may be wondering: does Mac have an equivalent shortcut?

Why yes, it does. The Mac equivalent keyboard shortcut is: command + option + escape.

This will bring up the following screen, called the Mac Task Manager:

In this image, all applications are running normally, and none are frozen.

I have multiple applications running. Each of them appears to be operating as expected in the image above. None are frozen.

If your app is frozen, it should have a little note saying "not responding" next to it. If it doesn't have this note, it may be worth doing option #2 (wait and hope) if you have work that you did not save.

Mocked up example of the "Notes" application not responding

Click on the application you want to force quit. Above, I have clicked on Google Chrome.

Now, click the "Force Quit" button in the bottom right of the popup.

Steps to force quit an application

Option #2: Wait and hope that the application fixes itself

If you have the time, you may prefer to wait and hope the application unfreezes itself.

Why would you do this? Generally because you have some work you did not manage to save before the application froze. For example, let's say you are working on a spreadsheet and made lots of changes. Sadly Excel froze before you saved your changes.

This is a classic example where you may prefer to wait and hope.

There are no guarantees on how long the application will take to resolve the issue, nor if it will ever resolve.

If you decide to try this approach, I suggest checking back on the application every 5-10 minutes. Click around, see if anything has changed, and give yourself a maximum time limit. I personally would only wait about an hour before deciding that it's time to say goodbye to my work.

In Summary, Here's how to deal with the "Beach Ball of Death"

To summarize, the steps are:

1. Hold down command + option + escape
2. Select the application you want to force quit
3. Click the force quit button

You can force quit an application that is still responsive. However force quitting will mean the status of the application is not saved, and the application doesn't shut down in its intended way. I'd recommend only force quitting frozen applications.

Good luck!

Fortunately, there are a couple easy ways to do this on a Mac. In this article, we'll go through the main methods so you can add accents to your text with ease.

The Press and Hold Accent Method on Mac

If you're not in a rush and you want to see all the common accent options at a glance, there's an easy way to do that.

Simply press and hold the key on which you'd like the accent to appear, and a number of options will come up above the letter, like this:

Press and hold accent method

When you see the type of accent you'd like to add, just type that number and the accent will be added to the letter. You can also use the left and right arrow keys (and enter) to select which one you want.

So, for example, if you wanted the second option, above, you'd press and hold e, then press 2 (or press the right arrow key once and then enter).

This method works well if you don't mind the time it takes for that little accent menu to pop up. But it doesn't always include all accents in every language. And it does slow down your flow, especially if you're typing a whole article in another language. Whew, that's a lot of added time.

Fortunately, there's another common method that involves keyboard shortcuts. And gives you all the options, as well.

The Option Key Accent Method on Mac

The Option key helps you add all kinds of accent and diacritic marks to your text. Just press and hold the Option key (the same as the Alt key), then press the "e" key, and then release them and press the letter key to which you'd like to add the accent.

For example, if you'd like to add an acute accent (´) to the letters a, e, i, o, or u, you'd press Option + e, and then the letter to which you'd like to add the accent. So, Option+e+a gets you á.

Accent insights from freeCodeCamp's founder.

But what if you want a different sort of accent, like a grave or umlaut? Don't worry – there are option key combos for those, too (and more).

• Option + ` + letter = grave accent à, è, ì, ò, or ù (like this: Voilà)
• Option + i + letter = circumflex accent â, ê, î, ô, or û (like this: Crêpe)
• Option + n + letter = eñe character ñ, ã, or õ (like this: El Niño)
• Option + u + letter = umlaut accent ä, ë, ï, ö, or ü (like this: Über)
• Option + a or Shift + Option + A (for capital A) = å or Å
• Option + ' or Shift + Option + ' = æ or Æ (ligatured ae)
• Option + q or Shift + Option + Q (for capital letters) = œ or Œ
• Option + c or Shift + Option + C (for capital) = ç or Ç
• Option + o or Shift + Option + O (for capital) = ø or Ø
• Shift + Option + ? = ¿
• Option + 1 = ¡
• Option + 5 = ∞

Once you memorize these combinations, you can incorporate the keystrokes right into your typical typing flow. And you can always bookmark this article in case you forget :).

Bonus: Other Option Key combos on Mac

What if you need to type some math symbols? Or the symbol for the Euro currency? You'll need more than just accent options.

Well, did you know – your basic English-language keyboard is hiding all those special characters right in (almost) plain sight?

By holding the option key and pressing any of the letters/numbers/punctuation marks, you can create a completely different character than what's printed on your keyboard.

So how do you know what each key combo gets you? Don't worry – your Mac can tell you. It just takes a few steps to find that info.

Step 1: Go to System Preferences

Find the Apple icon in the upper left corner, and click it. Then select "System Preferences" from the dropdown menu.

Select the Keyboard icon, and you'll see this box:

How to customize your keyboard.

Make sure the "Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar" is checked (as it is in the image above).

Step 2: Click the keyboard icon in your top menu bar

Now you'll see a little keyboard icon in your top menu bar, next to your bluetooth and wifi symbols/icons. Click it, and select "Show keyboard viewer".

That will bring up an image of your keyboard as it's configured on your Mac:

Your keyboard's basic configuration.

Step 3: Press the Options key

Now, if you hold down the Options key, it'll show you what else all those keys can do, like this:

So many options...

You can see the most common accent marks highlighted in orange above. Those are the keys that, when combined with the Option key, give you those accent marks (as you learned above).

You'll also see all kinds of other useful symbols, like currency symbols, math symbols, and so on. So if you ever need a quick reminder about what keys to press when you need to write the Greek letter µ (miu), for example, just reference this chart.

How to Add Accents on Windows with the International Keyboard

If you want to use shortcuts to include accents and special characters without switching to an entirely different keyboard layout, you can enable the international keyboard.

First, press the Windows key, type "Language", and click on "Language Settings" to open the language menu:

The Windows 10 language menu.

Then under "Preferred languages" click on "English" and "Options" to open the language options menu:

The Windows 10 English Language Options menu.

Under "Keyboards", click the "Add a keyboard" button and click on "United States-International" to add the international keyboard to your system.

To enable the international keyboard, move your mouse down to the taskbar and click on "ENG US", then click on "ENG INTL":

Use the keyboard select menu in the taskbar to enable the international keyboard.

Alternatively, hold down the Windows key and press Space to cycle through your installed keyboard layouts.

The main difference between the normal US keyboard layout and the international layout is that some keys work as a sort of "accented character lock".

For example, to type a single apostrophe (') with the international keyboard enabled, just type ' + Space. For a double quotation mark, just type " + Space. And backticks work the same way with ` + Space.

With that out of the way, here's how to type some common accents with the Windows 10 international keyboard:

• ` + letter = grave accent à, è, ì, ò, or ù (like this: Voilà)
• ^ + letter = circumflex accent â, ê, î, ô, or û (like this: Crêpe)
• ~ + letter = eñe character ñ, ã, or õ (like this: El Niño)
• " + letter = umlaut accent ä, ë, ï, ö, or ü (like this: Über)
• Right Alt+ w or Shift + Right Alt + W (for capital A) = å or Å
• Right Alt + z or Shift + Right Alt + Z = æ or Æ (ligatured ae)
• Right Alt + < or Shift + Right Alt + < (for capital) = ç or Ç
• Right Alt + l or Shift + Right Alt + L (for capital) = ø or Ø
• Right Alt + ? = ¿
• Right Alt + 1 = ¡

But you might have noticed that there's no shortcut to type œ, Œ, or ∞ with the international keyboard.

For that, let's take a quick look at another way to type accents, special characters, and symbols on Windows 10.

How to Add Accents on Windows with the Emoji Panel

The emoji panel makes it easy to scroll through all the available emoji and add one to a message. But you can also use the emoji panel to quickly add an accented or special character, too.

Use the shortcut Windows Key + . to open the emoji panel:

The Windows 10 emoji panel.

To add accents or special characters, press the symbols button at the top:

The Windows 10 emoji panel's Symbol options.

Then scroll through the menu and click on the accent or character you want:

Selecting the œ character in the Windows 10 emoji picker.

Also, you can click around the different menus at the bottom for different types of symbols. For example, ∞ is in the "Math symbols" section:

Selecting the ∞ character in the Windows 10 emoji picker.

And that should be everything you need to know to type accents and other special characters on both Mac and Windows. Adiós!

In this article we'll discuss what HEIC is, how it's different from the JPG format, why Apple uses it, how to convert from HEIC to JPG, and more.

What is the HEIC file format?

Well, first of all, .heic is the file extension that appears on HEIF files/images. HEIF stands for High Efficiency Image Format, and it was adopted by Apple in 2017.

As you might be able to guess from its name, photos stored in this way are "more efficient". That is, they're smaller while still maintaining their quality.

HEIF isn't actually a format, per se. Rather, it's a container in which the photo is stored that uses advanced compression techniques to squish that photo down into about half the size of a JPG.

A quick note, in case you're wondering: HEIF is the standard, and HEIC is the format name Apple gave it :) So I'll refer to it as HEIC in this article for simplicity's sake.

The differences between HEIC and JPG

There are several important differences between HEIC files and JPG files. You might be more familiar with JPG, because it's been around longer and everyone (on any device) can use and view them easily.

So let's break down the main differences between these two formats:

Operating system support for HEIC vs JPG

One of the limiting factors of HEIC is that it's only natively supported by Apple's operating system (iOS 11 and higher, and MacOS High Sierra and higher).

But don't worry – even though your iPhone takes photos in HEIC, if you have iOS 11 or MacOS Sierra and higher you can easily convert these photos to JPG (more on that below).

That way you can share them with whomever you want without worrying if your buddy will be able to open them on their Android phone, for example.

If you're a Windows or Android user, you can't simply open a HEIF should you find yourself in possession of one. You'll need to download an extension or program to help you deal with it.

Size and quality of HEIC vs JPG photos

Another main difference is the size of the photos, as mentioned above. HEIC photos are extra compressed, basically, so that they end up being about half the size of their JPG counterparts.

Also, despite that extra compression, HEIC photos still maintain their quality (and will actually be higher quality than a JPG of the same size). So you can actually get a better, higher resolution HEIF photo that's the same size as a not-so-high-quality JPG. Pretty neat.

Compatibility of HEIC vs JPG

As you now already know, you can't just casually open a HEIC file if you don't have a Mac or iPhone. That's one of it's major downsides, and the reason Apple's OS converts HEIC photos to JPG when you download them or go to share them.

JPG files, on the other hand, are compatible with all operating systems and browsers. So you can open a JPG anywhere.

Until the rest of the world adopts the HEIC format, you'll have to convert to JPG if you want an easy photo opening/viewing experience.

Format details

There are a couple other interesting differences between HEIC and JPG.

First of all, HEIC photos have 16-bit "deep color", whereas JPG only have 8-bit. So your HEIC photos can capture all those beautiful sunset nuances a lot better than JPG.

Second, HEIC files can store multiple images or bursts or live photos (in a single file), whereas JPG can only store one image per file. This gives HEIC more flexibility and allows it to store more types of photos (and more than one photo per file).

How to convert HEIC to JPG on your Mac

If your Mac is running High Sierra or later, you can convert HEIC images to JPG right in your photo Preview App.

Note: if you haven't updated your OS, you'll need to use an online converter.

But back to our process - here's how to convert those images in a few simple steps.

Step 1: Select the photo you want to convert to JPG

First you need to open Finder and get to your HEIC photos. I just searched for "heic" in the search bar, but if you have a folder where you keep them you can go there.

Next, select the photo(s) you want to convert, and right click on it (two-finger click on your laptop's trackpad). That will bring up a little menu like you see below:

Right click on the image you want to convert

Step 2: Open the photo with the Preview App

You'll select "Open with" (the second option for me) and then the default, "Preview" as you see in the image above.

Once you make those selections, it'll take you to the photo in the Preview App.

Step 3: Select and export the photo

Next, you need to choose "Edit" from Preview's menu bar, and then "Select All".

Edit, then Select All

You'll see a little moving dashed line around the outside of the photo - this tells you your "select all" action worked.

Now, go back up to Preview's menu bar and select "File" and then "Export", like this:

You'll need to export your image - which then gives you the option to change formats.

Step 4: Convert from HEIC to JPG format

Once you select "Export", you'll see the following box pop up:

Just change from HEIC to JPG and save and you're set!

You'll see that the "Format" is currently set to HEIC. Just click on HEIC and a little dropdown will show you all the other formats you can choose from (like in the image above).

Just select "JPG" instead and hit "Save". Then your photo will be converted into JPG! And you can confidently share away.

Just a quick note: you can also update where you want the photo saved. You can see in the image above that I have Desktop selected, but feel free to save to whatever location you like.

What if you want to turn HEIC off?

So what if you don't want to deal with these steps and just want your phone to take JPG photos instead of HEIC?

You can do that by following these steps:

1. Go to your iPhone's settings, and scroll down until you see "Camera" – select it
2. You'll see various settings, with "Formats" at the top – select it
3. You'll see two options, "High Efficiency" and "Most Compatible". It's likely set to "High Efficiency" by default (HEIC) so just change that to "Most Compatible" and that'll change it to JPG.

And voilà, the photos you now take will be in JPG format.