webdevstuff.md

1. Install Xcode from the Mac App Store — don't install the version from Apple's Developer Site, you won't get delta updates;
2. Install Homebrew — it's a package manager that will let you easily install, update and remove services and other tools;
3. Use brew to install mysql: brew install mysql;
4. If you want to use .dev and other wildcard local domains, there are plenty of guides but be sure to following something that is specifically for OS X Mavericks. The DNS services have changed a lot between major releases of the OS, and the instructions for pre-10.9 systems won't work. This one looks fine to me (and uses homebrew to install dependencies).
5. Don't fuck with the default web root — just roll with the default of whatever you choose to use. Usually on OS X, this is /Library/WebServer/Documents.

I prefer Nginx — it's smaller, lighter and faster than Apache — but it can be more difficult to get up and running, and PHP needs to be installed separately. You can install both with homebrew — take some time to read the documentation there.

In terms of apps:

1. Text Editor: I prefer Espresso for HTML/XML work, and TextMate 2 for everything else. SublimeText is also good, but I like the native UI of TextMate and Espresso. TextMate 2 is free (which always helps).
2. Database GUI: Ignore everything else — Sequel Pro is where it's at. It's free, it's beautiful, it's fully featured.
3. SFTP: Transmit by Panic is great, has a long history and is worth the cost if you prefer to manage your remote files using a GUI.
4. Version Control: I use git via the command line, and via Atlassian's SourceTree. If you're forced to work with old VCS tech like SVN, something like Tower is probably fine.

Beyond that, I stick to standard stuff as much as possible. Safari is generally faster and better integrated with the OS than Chrome, but you'll be testing in both. There are often great alternatives to the big Adobe Suite tools such as Sketch, Acorn & Pixelmator.

Beyond that, ask away — the web development tools on the mac are so far beyond the poorly designed products you'd be used to on Windows. Hopefully you'll never have to touch shitty WYSIWYG IDEs like Dreamweaver again!