Bootstrap Mac Apps with Homebrew Cask

Macs are losing their grip on “you don’t need to do a clean install of our OS every year.” I find myself running into frustrating issues every year where I throw my hands up and just do a clean install of macOS. I avoid restoring from Time Machine because I’m worried that’ll also migrate my issues. So I need to start from a fresh, blank slate.

Fortunately, bootstrapping a clean install of macOS with all the applications you use is pretty easy with Homebrew Cask. I already keep my shell configurations on Dropbox so I added a new file that installs the packages and applications I use. When I set up a new computer, I set up Dropbox first and then run brew.sh to install all the other applications.

Easy!