Ever since I mistakenly refreshed my desktop to Ubuntu 24.04 system and left it idle for a long time, I now try to turn it into a productivity tool. The first thing needs to be done is to beautify the terminal just like the one in my Macbook Air. Here is how I did it: 💻

Shell Setup

ZSH

A powerful and user-friendly Unix shell that combines the features of both the Bourne shell (sh) and C shell (csh), while also adding many new and innovative features. It aims to be a highly functional and interactive shell. Some key features of ZSH include: Command Line Completion, Spelling Correction, History Management, Plugin Architecture, and Theme Support. Since I use ubuntu environment, I prefer using apt to install zsh.
```
  sudo apt install zsh
```
If you meet some problems in setting zsh as default shell, you can use chsh -s /bin/zsh to set. I think if you finish setting up Oh My ZSH successfully, you actually already make zsh as your default shell. Check it with echo $SHELL. But if still meet problems, just restart your Ubuntu Desktop.
Oh My ZSH

This third-party plugin manager is a collection of plugins for ZSH that I use. It provides a bunch of useful features and plugins. Here is how I installed it:
```
  sh -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)”
```
And here is a screenshot of what we have done:

Nerd Font

With Nerd Font you can get a beautiful terminal with awesome icons. If you don’t have Nerd Font installed, you can choose one here

If you have Nerd Font installed, you can set it in Terminal>Preferences>Profile>Custom Fonts like below:

Powerlevel10k

Apowerfull theme I use for my terminal. It is a good choice for a good productivity. You can find it at Powerlevel10k GitHub repo. Using git to clone it is easy:
```
  git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k
```
- Then set ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k" in ~/.zshrc
- Restart your terminal or type source ~/.zshrc
- Set the same terminal font in VSCode "terminal.integrated.fontFamily": "'0xProto Nerd Font'" (optional)
With a screenshot, you can see terminal with Powerlevel10k theme:

zsh-autosuggestions

A plugin that suggests commands based on what you have typed.
```
  git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
```
- Then set plugins=(... zsh-autosuggestions) in ~/.zshrc
- Restart your terminal or type source ~/.zshrc
zsh-syntax-highlighting

A plugin that highlights your command syntax. It is a must-have plugin.
```
  git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
```
- Set plugins=(... zsh-syntax-highlighting) in ~/.zshrc
- Restart your terminal or type source ~/.zshrc

Command Line Tool Setup

bat

Which is short for better cat. Basically, it is a cat with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and pages.
```
  sudo apt install bat
```
Here is a screenshot of using bat to show README.md file:

fzf

A command-line fuzzy finder that helps you select files and commands. I don’t recommend using apt to install fzf, since you must do key-binding for it manually. Therefore, git clone it from GitHub.

  git clone –depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git ~/.fzf

Then install fzf using ~/.fzf/install
Restart your terminal or type source ~/.zshrc

Key Bindings	Actions
`<C-t>`	Find files
`<C-r>`	Find commands
`<command> <file path>/**`	Combine fzf with other commands

Additionally, if you want to make fzf work with editor, you can add following lines in ~/.zshrc:

  function open-editor-with-fzf() {
  local file=$(find . -type f | fzf --preview="cat {}")
  if [[ -n $file ]]; then
      ${EDITOR:-nvim} "$file"
  fi
  }
  zle -N open-editor-with-fzf
  bindkey "^E" open-editor-with-fzf

eza

Better ls command with colors and icons. Make your terminal look more interesting.

  sudo apt install eza

And setting alias ls to eza in ~/.zshrc

  # --- eza ---
  alias ls="eza --color=always --long --git --icons=always --no-time --no-user --no-permissions"
  alias ll="eza --color=always --long --git --icons=always --header"

Then restart your terminal or type source ~/.zshrc, and try ls and ll.

tldr

A command-line man page reader but more user-friendly.
```
  sudo apt install tldr
```
See different commands with tldr using tldr <command>, here is an example comparing tldr and man:

fastfetch

A command-line system information tool that is easy to use and fast. The install process is a bit different from others. We need to add ppa:zhangsongcui3371/fastfetch to our sources, and then install it.
```
  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:zhangsongcui3371/fastfetch
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install fastfetch
```
By the way, we can directly install fastfetch by typing brew install fastfetch in MacOS. Here are some screenshots of using fastfetch to show system information (Apple Silicon and Linux):

Editor Setup

Neovim AstroNvim is an aesthetically pleasing and feature-rich neovim config that is extensible and easy to use with a great set of plugins. To install it, you need to install neovim first.

  sudo apt install neovim

Then clean up cache and state files:

  mv ~/.local/share/nvim ~/.local/share/nvim.bak
  mv ~/.local/state/nvim ~/.local/state/nvim.bak
  mv ~/.cache/nvim ~/.cache/nvim.bak

Clone AstroNvim repository

  git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/AstroNvim/template ~/.config/nvim
  # remove template's git connection to set up your own later
  rm -rf ~/.config/nvim/.git
  nvim

Integrate with AI Tools

Codeium is a powerful code assistant that provides an AI-powered code completion, code refactoring, and code formatting. I usually use it in my daily work before with VSCode. Let’s do it in Neovim, add a new file named codeium.lua in ~/.config/nvim/lua/plugins/ and add the following lines:

  return {
    'Exafunction/codeium.vim',
    event = 'BufEnter'
  }

Then install the plugin, by typing SPC + p + i in Neovim (normal mode)
Before you start using codeium you need to auth your account type :Codeium Auth in Neovim (command mode)
Look for more help info you can use :help codeium. Here list some useful commands:

Action	Function	Default Binding
Clear current suggestion	`codeium#Clear()`	`<C-]>`
Next suggestion	`codeium#CycleCompletions(1)`	`<M-]>`
Previous suggestion	`codeium#CycleCompletions(-1)`	`<M-[>`
Insert suggestion	`codeium#Accept()`	`<Tab>`
Manually trigger suggestion	`codeium#Complete()`	`<M-Bslash>`
Accept word from suggestion	`codeium#AcceptNextWord()`	`<C-k>`
Accept line from suggestion	`codeium#AcceptNextLine()`	`<C-l>`

You can also use :Codeium Enable and :Codeium Disable to turn on/off the plugin.
More info see: Codeium GitHub Repository