My Personal Setup Instructions from fresh OSX1.8 (Mountain Lion) install:

OSX10.8 Mountain Lion Web Developer Setup Instructions

My Personal Setup Instructions from fresh OSX1.8 (Mountain Lion) install:

Some notes on why I have chosen some of these preferences:
I am primarlily a Ruby web developer, and work on a variety of Ruby and Rails versions and database platforms.
I usually use RVM (http://rvm.beginrescueend.com), but this guide uses [chruby](https://github.com/postmodern/chruby)

I spend most of my day in the Terminal, Atom editor, and a Web Browser, and desire to keep things as simple and stock as possible, but do have certain minor preferences that make my day-to-day interaction with the computer better.

Choose Full-Disk encryption on Install and set a password
Run software update until it cannot find any updates

Open System Preferences:
  Dock:
    Size: ~25%
    Position on screen: Left
    Minimize windows using: Scale effect
    Automatically hide and show the Dock: checked
  Mission Control:
   Hot Corners:
     Bottom Left: Mission Control
  Security & Privacy:
    General:
      Show a message when screen is locked: "Property of $name, if found call $number"
      Allow applications downloaded from: Anywhere
    Firewall: Turn on Firewall
  Spotlight:
    Search Results: Uncheck everything exept: Applications, Documents, Folders, Images, PDF Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets
  Sharing:
    Computer Name: iFruit
  Energy Saver:
    Power Adapter:
      Computer sleep: Never
      Display sleep: 20 min
      Put hard disks to sleep when possible: Uncheck (SSD)
  Keyboard:
    Keyboard Shortcuts:
      Full Keyboard Access: Choose "All controls" # allow tabbing dialog boxes
  Trackpad:
    Tracking Speed: 9
  Date & Time:
    Clock: Check "Show date"
  iCloud:
    Check: Find my Mac
  Accessibility:
    Enable access for assistive devices (necessary for SizeUp!)

Open a finder window, and browse to the home folder
  Drag the house icon from top center, to the top of "FAVORITES" on the left sidebar.
Then go to Finder -> Preferences
  General:
    Show these items on the desktop: Uncheck "External disks"
    New Finder windows show: Home folder
  Sidebar:
    Uncheck: Movies, Music, Back to My Mac, Bonjour computers
    Check: Home dir
  Advanced:
    Uncheck: Show warning before changing an extension
    When performing a search: Search the Current Folder

Drag everything off the dock

# Disable dashboard
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
killall Dock

Add Terminal.app to the dock
Save https://gist.github.com/unixmonkey/371617
Open Terminal.app and go to Preferences -> Settings
Hit the gear icon under Profiles and import
Click Dave's Pro, then click "Default"

# Install Xcode and GCC
Launch App Store, and install Xcode
Launch Xcode to run installer
Go to Xcode -> Preferences -> Downloads, and install "Command Line Tools"
Then install Command Line Tools (OSX Mountain Lion) for Xcode from https://developer.apple.com/downloads/
Then install osx-gcc-installer https://github.com/kennethreitz/osx-gcc-installer/downloads
# I couldn't install json gem without doing this first
# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11961032
sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/

# Copy over Dotfiles and Keychains
git clone https://github.com/unixmonkey/dotfiles.git .dotfiles
cd .dotfiles
./setup.sh

cp -aRv /VOLUMES/OldHD/Users/djones/.ssh/ ~/.ssh
cp -aRv /VOLUMES/OldHD/Users/djones/Library/Keychains ~/Library/Keychains

Add AIM and Gtalk accounts to Messages (giving this a shot over Adium)
Go to Messages -> Preferences -> Alerts, and turn off sounds for:
  Buddy Becomes Available, Buddy Becomes Unavailable

Launch iTunes
Go to Preferences -> Devices, and check "Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically"

# Install http://google.com/chrome
Open Chrome Preferences
  On Startup: Continue where I left off

# Install http://lastpass.com

# Install http://atom.io

# Install http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

# Install http://www.sequelpro.com/

# Install http://cord.sourceforge.net/

# Install http://cyberduck.ch/

# Install http://imageoptim.com/

# Install http://gimp.lisanet.de/Website/Download.html

# Install http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

# Install http://dropbox.com
  Preferences: Check "Use black and white menu bar icons"

# Install Navicat Premium Essentials & Twitter from the App Store

# Install http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/
brew doctor
brew update

# (optional - install all brew packages dumped with `brew bundle dump`)
brew bundle --brewfile ~/.dotfiles/Brewfile

# Install chruby
brew install chruby
brew install ruby-build
echo 'source /usr/local/opt/chruby/share/chruby/chruby.sh
source /usr/local/opt/chruby/share/chruby/auto.sh' >> ~/.profile
source ~/.profile

# Install Rubies
sudo mkdir -p /opt/rubies
sudo chown -R djones /opt
sudo chgrp -R admin /opt
ruby-build 1.8.7-p357 /opt/rubies/ruby-1.8.7-p357
ruby-build 2.0.0-p0 /opt/rubies/2.0.0-p0
ruby-build 1.9.3-p392 /opt/rubies/1.9.3-p392

# Install MySQL
brew install mysql
mkdir -p /usr/local/var/mysql
unset TMPDIR
mysql_install_db --verbose --user=`whoami` --basedir="$(brew --prefix mysql)" --datadir=/usr/local/var/mysql --tmpdir=/tmp
mysql.server start
mysql_secure_installation
mysql.server stop

# Rmagick required some trickery with libtool
brew install libtool --universal
brew link libtool
brew install imagemagick

# Get a Rails app running
brew install v8 # for therubyracer / Coffeescript
gem i bundler
bundle
bundle exec rake test
bundle exec rake cucumber

Setup Time Machine & Perform backup
  Options: Uncheck "Back up while on battery power"

Create SuperDuper! Backup to external drive