Things I Do Immediately on a New Linux Box

[ February 12th, 2014 ]

Here are a few things I do immediately on any new Linux server.

1. Upload my own .vimrc so that I have jk as ESC, SPACE as my leader, and all my other tweaks.

2. Change my shell to zsh so I have vim functionality on the command line, better autocomplete, etc.chsh -s /bin/zsh

3. Install Prezto so I have massively enhanced zsh functionality, including themes and plugins4 git clone --recursive https://github.com/sorin-ionescu/ \ prezto.git "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zprezto"

4. Set a static IP, DNS, hostname

5. Update the system

6. Enable SSH key authentication, with passwords disabled

I used to slowly do these over the first few hours, as I ran into them, but this is such a maddening experience that I now do this workflow immediately.

I suggest you consider doing the same. It’ll make you more productive faster, and doing the vim and zsh stuff first avoids you messing with stored muscle memory regarding your shell and text editor while you do your initial edits.