Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

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I'm converting my unused gaming PC into a NAS/Docker container server and my personal device will now be a MacBook Air.

I've got Magnet for easier window management, otherwise not much else and looking for recommendations on other apps to check out.

So, what applications do you use daily on MacOS and why do you love it?

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I highly recommend reading this list of built-in macOS terminal commands: https://ss64.com/mac/

Some commands I use often:

- `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` to copy and paste data via the clipboard

- `date -u` to give the date in UTC

- `networkQuality` is speedtest but built-in to macOS

- `caffeinate` prevents your computer from going to sleep (it's the same as the old Caffeinate program, but built-in now)

- `open ...` to open a file, as if you double-clicked it in Finder

- `security` gives you command-line access to the Keychain.

> caffeinate

TIL there is a built in utility. I switched from Caffeinate to Amphetamine a while back and never bothered to look for a built-in solution. Great to know!

`xattr -cr` is a wonderfully quick way to bypass the security quarantine of unsigned binaries.

So is “right-click => Open” in a Finder window.

> caffeinate

https://keepingyouawake.app/ I use this for a "GUI" version

on most systems (macos + linux)

  TZ=UTC date

thank you for "security" (lots to read now)

Raycast

- Replaces Spotlight for opening applications

- Replaces Magnet for window management, same features but don’t have to run a separate app now.

- keeps a clipboard history

- allows me to convert colours and units

- integrates with my calendar to show me upcoming meetings, shows them in my menu bar and lets me join them with one click

- allows me to prevent my Mac from sleeping (for certain durations) with caffeinate command

- has a variety of plugins available

Probably forgetting a lot of things I use it for, but even without the premium features I use it all the time.

I was a big Quicksilver user. I was a big Alfred user (from literal day 1). I’m now a big Raycast user. In fact Raycast is the only one where I’ve developed my own extensions (beyond basic toy scripts), the extension model is very good (even if distribution is iffy).

I wish the Pro version wasn't subscription based. I'd pay a one time cost even if they dropped the stuff that needs server support (AI, Sync, whatever).

Please send them that feedback! I did, and I hope they don’t mind me sharing their response:

  Thanks for reaching out and for the feedback.

  Pricing, like everything else at Raycast, is something we will continuously evaluate and try to balance between what is best for our users and also for us as a company. And on this subject we are indeed looking into the possibility of offering a cheaper Pro Plan (lite version) subscription without AI for example or even offering a lifetime license with additional benefits outside the app. So more on this subject to come soon.

  Best,

  —
  Daniel Sequeira
  Engineering Manager at Raycast

I wish the Pro separated AI and everything else. I can’t use the AI stuff at work for contractual reasons, but it’s also clear that most of the cost goes into that. I’m not paying $10/m for longer clipboard history, but I’d probably pay $50 one off for all the local-only bits.

Problem is that they’re VC backed and you don’t get SaaS valuations on selling a ton of single-purchase software.

It's good but VC backed. Also the actual file search is really bad.

Also, it has by far the best plugin system I've ever seen. It combines all the best practices from Web-Development with their own custom React-reconciler.

You can write fairly sophisticated UIs with less effort than for a shell script. If a FOSS version of this ever takes off, it could have the potential to replace terminal-UIs outright.

I came here to scream Raycast… but this is a great breakdown. Raycast replaces _so many_ apps (and even web browser functionality) for me, and I’m not even on the Pro tier.

To your list, I would add app shortcuts / key commands / quick links / snippets / code image generators (optically from selection) to name a few.

Is Raycast better than Alfred? Or mostly the same?

IMO No. Raycast:

- Took VC money and pushes for subscription instead of a clear payment model.

- Rides the AI Hype train.

- Is still not able to handle file workflows properly.

- Alfred workflows are easier to write and to debug due to workflow editor, you have to be a web developer to find the proposition of writing what is basically a small react app a good one.

- Also, IMO, not very fast, consumes a lot of resources and has a clumsy UX due to using stateful multistep apps.

I would always prefer Alfred to Raycast, but I am stuck with Launchbar which is still the Launcher with most smooth workflow for me. The whole <Object><Action> paradigm is just so fast - select something, tab, match an app with 2 keystrokes-enter -> Opens in app. Works on text, files, whatever.

Yeah the fact that the first thing I see on their landing page is about AI has me peacing out.

Tough question. Alfred never really clicked for me, Raycast clicked right away, but I can't put my finger on why.

Link?

raycast.com

- LittleSnitch per-application firewall, mostly for selectively granting outbound access but also controls inbound access (In general, you also need the built-in firewall setup and running correctly too.)

- BlockBlock, KnockKnock, and RansomWhere, but not LuLu because it caused TCP connections to drop nondeterministically

- ScrollReverser to fix standalone mouse scrolling behavior because macOS only has one mouse and trackpad reverse setting

- KarabinerElements for key remapping

- BusyCalendar

- Dash for dev docs

- MacDown for markdown

- Bodega for checking the latest versions of all Sparkle apps (While the main app was discontinued years ago causing an error message on launch, the Sparkle update checking continues to work)

- DaisyDisk to check disk usage

- HardwareGrowler + Growl for hardware and network monitoring (Yes, it's old and nothing else uses Growl notifications anymore, but noticing when the Ethernet adapter is being temperamental is handy)

- A fork of Breakaway for the rare times when I used my headphone jack to auto mute volume if it were to become disconnected unexpectedly

- AppZapper to really nuke apps, their data, and their config (Also, old but it still works)

- Pacifist to sneak a peak inside .pkg's

- OmniGraffle of course, the "Visio" for Mac

- Ascension .nfo viewer

- WineSkin for running some Windows apps on Mac when you know exactly what runtimes they need (I ran Altera Quartus Pro/II with it fine once upon a time™ for an overseas cloned FPGA devkit)

- Probably already mentioned: iStat Menus, Bartender, ForecastBar, Paste, Postgres, MacTracker, iTerm2

- Don't use anymore: CoconutBattery, TotalFinder, QuickSilver, Axure RP, Reveal, Reinteract, VMware Fusion, EndNote, Papers, Bookends

- I wish I had or could afford: a full-featured license of IDA Pro

Just in case you missed the news, Bartender has been bought by a shady seeming app mill. I switched to Ice the other day, it's very good.

Thanks for the Ice recommendation, just moved over from Bartender.

Freeware replacement for AppZapper: https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

Latest is a modern, OSS replacement for Bodega (IIUC). https://github.com/mangerlahn/latest

If your into the tiling window manager experience, I would highly recommend looking into yabai + skhd + Sketchybar

- https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai - https://github.com/koekeishiya/skhd - https://github.com/FelixKratz/SketchyBar

Some honorable mentions: Hammerspoon - Unlock insane levels of configuration/automation (https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon) Raycast - Spotlight search replacement (https://www.raycast.com/) LuLu Firewall - An amazing FOSS firewall (https://github.com/objective-see/LuLu)

I use Amethyst https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst in my day to day. Slightly different management philosophy but one that works well for me.

yabal requires quite some privileges. Did you check out https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace ?

FYI AeroSpace is nice but can't handle apps with tabs, like Finder. This is a non-starter issue for me at least.

Elevated privileges for yabai are optional, it works just fine without disabling SIP.

Git Fork: a git client with a similar level of polish to Tower, but as a one-time purchase instead of a subscription product.

https://git-fork.com/

Proud purchase of this one after using it for almost half a decade. I've used Sourcetree, GitKraken, Github desktop for a while. But Fork is just really smooth, not bloated, and talks to me when I'm high on nootropics.

Love Fork, been using it on both Windows and macOS. I think it's a great example of native cross-platform software.

Yes, Fork is a very welcome spiritual successor.

I love Fork. I only wish it ran on Linux.

Can't use Mac without rectangle. You don't need magnet.

Owly is my fav for anti sleeping at certain times. Though critical to disable the ads via startup features. I haven't found abetter one. Though it has quirks.

Also some commands in the cli for like key repeat. Like wtf why can't I turn off accent hold when I want to repeat letters.

I like Amphetamine for keeping the system awake. I use the option to quickly set a time to stay awake until a lot. I like that I can choose whether it allows sleep or not when the laptop lid is closed. I know it also lets you create schedules and some other basic triggers for automatically starting sessions.

I second that. Rectangle is a must have app for me. Perhaps a few others, but that one stands out as one I don’t want to use my Mac without

You can also type 'caffeinate' in the terminal and it'll turn off sleeping.

Unfortunately, 'caffeinate' doesn't have an option to keep the Macbook awake with the lid closed and no attached monitor or power.

I use Amphetamine instead, so that I can continue Zoom calls after putting my laptop in my backpack to walk around.

- I cannot use my mac without rectangle.

- Karabiner-elements will disable the keyboard automatically when I connect my external bluetooth keyboard.

- github.com/exelban/stats is an excellent macOS system monitor in your menu bar

Like most mac power user tools there are a few versions of most. I'm currently preferring Multitouch.app as it combines: - Letting me assign 3-finger click to middle-click for opening tabs in chrome (in Safari you can use force touch but I never really liked it, and Chrome doesn't seem to have it) - Window snapping to half/half, third, etc.. either by dragging to the edge or with keyboard shortcuts. I use keyboard shortcuts for both window splits and thirds on my 34" Ultrawide.

Next MacOS version got some tiling window management built in ...

Choosy - is a must for me. It lets you select the browser/profile after clicking on any link or define the rules for opening them. For example, if a link contains a certain domain or it's source application is Slack, it will be opened in Work profile of your browser.

Obsidian - note taking, making presentations for work-related stuff.

iTerm 2 - it's better than default terminal emulator, but i consider moving to Alacritty to see what's so hype about it.

Scroll Reverser - macOS still doesn't know the difference between mouse scrolling and trackpad scrolling.

While i can't recommend Arc browser, i still use it daily. I don't believe it will exist in it's current form in two years, but now it's much more usable than other Chromium-based browsers for me.

I also have a simple shortcut in Siri Shortcuts that calls m1ddc tool to change the external monitor current input between HDMI and DisplayPort.

> Choosy

Wow, this would be pretty useful. Drives me crazy when my meetings open up in my personal chrome.

> I don't believe it will exist in it's current form in two years,

Why?

Arc Browser does not have a public monetization plan. The Browser Company is a for-profit company, and they'll need to give something to their investors. Their market share now is abysmal to make a meaningful amount of profit from just selling user data.

At some point, they will need to introduce some kind of subscription for some of their browser features - I assume that current Arc Max is going to be part of it. This would lead to making new features available only to the paying users.

I have really pessimistic views on software development (for-profit or not) in general now, so I'd be really happy to be wrong here.

Orion Browser does something similar, I wonder if they make enough or if it’s subsidized by Kagi search?

Shottr - someone on HN recommended it, and I use it several times a day at work (FE here). It screenshots to clipboard quickly, and you can paste these right into Slack or Facebook or ChatGPT etc. It also does text & QR recognition, so you can copy text from images and such.

BetterSnapTool - lets me move windows into other screens easily, the main feature that I miss from windows.

BetterTouchTool - mostly just mapping my 4th & 5th mouse buttons to copy & paste

You can also take a screenshot and save it to the clipboard with ctrl+cmd+shift+4 (for a selection) or ctrl+cmd+shift+3 (for the entire screen). The same keys but without the 'ctrl' key will save them to file.

It seems like a ridiculous keyboard shortcut but I use it so much, it's motor memory now.

The great thing about Shottr vs system screenshots is the annotations you can put up very quickly. E.g.

1. $hotkey for screenshot 3. Hit enter to edit 4. Press A to draw an arrow with the mouse 5. Cmd-c to dismiss the edit window and copy & paste wherever.

So it basically only takes as long as you take to click down an arrow with your mouse

Side note - shift-command-1 ejected the floppy in disk drive one, shift-command-2 ejected the floppy in disk drive two and thus screen shot landed on shift-command-3 I remember when I got my second floppy drive and thought I was living the high life not having to swap disks!

I usually use Markup for drawing on screenshots. It's not a rich as Shottr, but I'm usually just drawing a box around something or making an arrow to draw someone's attention.

cmd-shift-5 lets you choose between all the screen capture options, plus it also allows you to do screen recordings.

BetterSnapTool isn't needed anymore since the functionality is built into BetterTouchTool. The dev of those programs recommends only using BTT to avoid conflicts between the two.

Thank you, didn't realize this!

There's also https://www.snipaste.com with very similar functionality. I dont understand how it's free.

Keyboard Maestro allows you to simplify or automate nearly any task. No words here can capture its capabilities. Additional perks are its stability, no subscriptions (and discounted upgrade pricing for existing users), and a helpful support forum.

The first thing I install when I get a new mac. Peter ftw.

For everyone recommending Rectangle, for instance... I just have a few Keyboard Maestro macros. KM probably replaces half a dozen other apps for me.

I really like Keyboard Maestro but I found myself gravitating back to Hammerspoon after a while and just building out a library of scripts for everything I used Keyboard Maestro for (and quite a bit more).

For someone using neither of these tools yet, Keyboard Maestro is probably the nicer one to start with to give you a taste for how useful some of those automations can be!

Both are pretty powerful.

Funny, I did the opposite because at some point I wanted to do something that was straightforward with KM but non-trivial with hammerspoon.

I do miss it's simplicity in pulling info from the system.

Yeah I can understand that. I'm not passionate about one vs the other. Sometimes I do like a GUI! Keyboard Maestro is great.

I used a Mac for about 10 years before finding Keyboard Maestro. I now think of those as the Dark Times.

Want to script actions in an app that isn't easily scriptable? It's got your back.

MacPorts is vital for package management—has many more packages than Homebrew, a more sane implementation, and was co-created by Jordan Hubbard who worked for Apple and also created the FreeBSD ports system. Also pretty straightforward to create your own ports using built-in templates for GitHub projects, Makefile-based projects, etc.

MonitorControl is great for interfacing with external monitors using DDC/CI.

I recommend primarily using Safari with a Content Blocker (I use AdGuard) as it uses far less battery than third-party browsers and feels more native.

VMWare Fusion is now free for personal use if you need to virtualize Windows; the official download link is a Byzantine nightmare but you can find mirrors if you Google for them and you can verify the hash against those listed on the official download site.

iTerm2[2] and I'm astonished there's less mention of it on this thread (though there is some).

That is mainly because I switched mostly to Linux a few years ago, and you'd think the lack of a good terminal app wouldn't be the biggest pain point of switching from Mac to Linux, but it absolutely is.

There's no terminal app on Linux even close to as good as iTerm2.

[2]: https://iterm2.com/ but it's v3 tho ¯\_(ಠ_ಠ)_/¯

I recommend that you try out WezTerm[1]. I used Warp before switching to WezTerm, but Warp took always a long time to open the first time. WezTerm on the other hand is extremely snappy and easy to configure. After having tried iTerm2, Alacritty, Kitty, Warp and others I might be forgetting, I don't think I'll ever move away from WezTerm. It just works.

[1]: https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/index.html

I've tried WezTerm, and it seemed good. But, I didn't see anything better that iTerm. (Aside from the name not being "WezTerm2" :-/ ) And even though I use only maybe 8% of iTems's features, that's still a significant number of great features no other terminal that I know of has.

I've also tried all the others you mention. I actually like Konsole from KDE the second best, I think.

But none of them come even close to iTerm, except... it doesn't run on my main computers, so I have to find a Mac and SSH into my main (Linux) machines.

What I want is iTerm (minus confusing version iTerm 2 v 3.x naming stuff), that work on Linux also. (Extremely unlikely to ever exist, I know... just stating my wants.)

And maybe also with a Termius-style "persist all your bookmarks and saved configs to the cloud so that with one commmand you have them all on any machine".

Seriously! I think I spend most of my time in iTerm over any other single app.

Plus, it's open source and the developer continues to improve it, so many years later.

Yeah. I realized it was so important when I noticed that my main daytime use of my Mac was to operate my Linux machine via iTerm2.

Like any time I need to do something complicated, like a process that I might want to document after the fact... iTerm never loses history, you can get timestamps on every command after the fact. It's automatable, you can easily tell it to open 10 terminals, replaying a different CLI command sequence in each... I could go on and on and on, but I can't think of any other example of an app that has so thoroughly dominated its category.

I mean maybe like Microsoft Excel for Windows, but that is from a whole other angle (that is not software excellence haha)...

I'm an iTerm user as well, but I hardly use any of its features -- I stick with it primarily because its font rendering is better than any other terminal I've tried on macOS. My needs are pretty minimal and aren't terminal-dependent, e.g. tmux, neovim...that's about it. I just need the terminal to display text, really.

What features from iTerm make you love it so much?

Also not GP.

I create profiles for starting up each part of my work tech stack (backend, frontend, workers, specific ssh connections, etc.) and I can run/switch to them in separate tabs via shift-cmd-o and typing a few characters of the name. Can also start up all of them at once via an 'Open All' command for a group of profiles.

I'm not GP, but tab splitting and tmux Control Codes integration are 2 of my main productivity features in any software.

I haven't found any other terminal emulator that has them. On Linux, Konsole has decent splitting but no `tmux -CC`.

I use terminator as a substitute for iterm. It's written in python and looking for your support. https://github.com/gnome-terminator/terminator

What makes it better than iTerm2?

I never said it's better. It's a replacement if you are looking for one.

The reason is that there was a recent controversy[0]. Many people have moved to alacritty/kitty/wezterm.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40432446

Huh, seems like one of those "Waffle House now offers CHOCOLATE syrup in addition to cheap maple-flavored syrup, NEVER EATING THERE AGIAN!!" kind of issues.

I noticed the AI feature in the latest update to iTerm2, but it wasn't turned on by default, and I didn't turn it on, so...

¯\\_(ಠ_ಠ)_/¯

Nailed it. I thought, “huh, interesting, won’t use it, next item…” and moved on. I was surprised at the firestorm.

Gell-Mann Amnesia effect but for software instead of journalism

Pretty ridiculous controversy. Opt-in feature, disabled until you paste your own OpenAI API key on it.

Not to mention that you need to interact with it every time you use it, sheesh.

The Mastodon mobs who brigaded the issue tracker were squarely in the fringe, frowned upon by pretty much everyone else...

Nobody mentioned Maccy ? It's a clipboard manager, with history and configurable :

https://github.com/p0deje/Maccy

Paste through Setapp is my go to clipboard manager, but always looking for alternatives. Thanks for the recommendation!

I'm a big fan of PastePal. It works as promised, syncs cross-platform, and has a dirt cheap one-time payment.

I used this for ages (and its spiritual, if not actual, predecessor ClipMenu), but these days I'm using the clipboard in Raycast because it's right there.

Loads of little things, but you specifically asked for daily use so:

- Rectangle for window management (I appreciate you have Magnet and tastes differ)

- MarkEdit is an excellent (free) Markdown editor

- Highland 2 (not free) for more long-form Markdown writing as it can handle normal Markdown files and feels more polished than similar tools (especially the document map)

- VLC as I watch a lot of box sets and it's better than the Apple options

- SourceTree for source control (not as good as Git Extentions on Windows but more to my tastes than the VS Code plugins, Fork, or GitKraken for example)

- BitWarden as I'm cross-platform so don't want to rely on the Apple Keychain

- Authy for two-factor authentication - not the Google, Microsoft, or similar option as I don't want to be tied to a tech giant account that can get switched off

- PCloud (with encryption and a mapped drive) for the same cross-platform reason, plus again I don't want my backups tied to a tech giant account that can get switched off

- PGAdmin 4 for database management during development

- Keka for handling archives/zips as it usually handles files fine when Apple's archiver won't (eg some EPUBs when renamed to zip)

- Fastmail for being able to manage multiple custom domain emails, aliases, and even nameservers from a single (paid) user account (I'm aware it isn't a Mac app but I do often use Outlook from Office 2019 to access it despite the excellent web site)

Authy killed its desktop app, so you've gotta use their iOS version. Personally I switched to 1Password when they pulled that.

Tired of password manager apps, I started to keep my passwords in a locked note in the Notes app

With a simple cipher it's near impossible for anyone to use but you

I use OTP Auth both iOS and Mac apps available. Pro upgrade is dirt cheap.

Authy is dying. I moved to strongbox 4 years ago and never looked back. It’s Mac and iOS integrations are great!

Strongbox seems similar to 1Password. I’m considering both. Could you share some of the reasons that had you choose the former?

Strongbox had a one and done purchase option at the time (14.99).

They came out with an option a year or two ago for an upgraded version that was $99 for its lifetime. But I was migrated to that new product without paying.

Loved it so much I paid $99 for a copy for my wife. And have also tipped them a few times over the past few years. Not sure if 1pass has something similar but I do remember a sub model which I didn’t like.

Perfect, appreciate your response. I have been paying for 1password but don’t like the idea of losing access or functionality in my credit card expires for example.

I’m heavily invested in 1p for years now, but have been impressed by the new Apple Passwords app (in beta) - it’s nowhere near as advanced, but it implements like 90% of what you need including 2FA. I’m sticking with 1p for now but worth watching as well.

I can recommend IINA much more compared to VLC. It's so much more performant (like 4-5x times), has a macOS native UI, some features VLC is lacking, let you watch an unlimited amount of videos at the same time.

Thanks - I'll take a look.

Using Authy on desktop kinda kills it's 2fa purpose.

MicDrop - Add a global "mute microphone" button in the status bar (https://getmicdrop.com/)

AltTab - Give the same (sane) behaviour to cmd+tab as alt+tab on Windows (https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/)

Rectangle - Window snapping (https://rectangleapp.com/)

Maccy - A clipboard history manager (https://maccy.app/)

DropZone - Add a "shelf" zone in the same way as Dropover. It's less good than Dropover, but it's available in Homebrew (whereas Dropover is only available in the app store) (https://aptonic.com/)

Notion Calendar (previously cron) - I love having my next meetings displayed in the status bar, and its notifications are very useful (eg. they have a "join google meet" button)

I use MeetingBar for the menubar calendar... open source. https://github.com/leits/MeetingBar

Cool alternative! I want to keep using my default calendar on my personal laptop so I’ll probably use this instead of Notion Calendar, thanks for the post

MUST HAVES StopTheMadness- lets you get more control over webpages and block annoyances LosslessCut- lossless video cutting Amphetamine- prevent displays from going asleep depending on what you’re doing Maccy- clipboard manager AppCleaner- uninstall all an app and all it’s library files DropOver- amazing and so handy Hand Mirror- helpful tool to just check how you look on cam before a video call IINA- best video player Name Changer- bulk renaming utility Wins- window organization Acorn- great lightweight photoshop alternative OpenEmu- great viddy game emulator Subler- video metadata editor Downie 4- youtube downloader safari extension Black out- preview extension to easily black out sections of an image MP3tag- great music metadata editor Affinity Designer- great alt to illustrator Fission- lossless audio editing Infuse- great local or server video library Keyboard Maestro- Automate everything? Loopback Audio- makes your desktop audio a source Magic Lasso- fav adblocker NetNewsWire- RSS reader Silicon- check to see if your apps were built for M1

Shortcat: https://shortcat.app/

It makes it VERY easy to keep your fingers on the keyboard almost all the time, which really helps things fly. It's an equivalent of the AceJump plugin for IntelliJ if you've used that, but it uses the accessibility tree instead of the contents of the editor.

Wow I just set this up and it is incredible. Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome!

Wow, this is awesome. Thanks for the rec.

- Alfred: Launcher and general productivity app

- Hammerspoon: window management and general purpose automation app, configured in lua.

- sketchybar: menu bar replacement, configured in bash/zsh

- Karabiner elements: keyboard remapper

- homebrew: package manager

- Obsidian: note-taking app. Also longform writing (with the right origins) and social scientific QDA (with the right plugins)

- WezTerm: terminal, configured in lua

- espanso: text expander

- CleanShot X: Screenshot App, can also do OCR, Videos, gifs, and screenshot annotations

- Peek: Syntax highlighting for Quick Look into source code files

- Betterzip: Quicklook into archive files & general handling of archives

- Highlights: PDF reader with focus on annotations.

I'm really surprised Hammerspoon isn't more well known. I search for something like it for months before I stumbled across it a while back. It felt much harder to find than it should have been.

- iStat Menus, because I like monitoring my system in realtime

- Alfred, for better Spotlight (though Spotlight is actually OK) and clipboard management.

- Bartender, to control the menu bar

- Path Finder, for a decent orthodox file manager

- Sublime Text

- NetNewsWire, an excellent Mac-only RSS reader.

- 1Blocker has served me well for ad blocking in Safari

- Amphetamine to keep the system awake for long operations

- Onyx, for occasional system maintenance

(No horse in this race) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40584606 seems to strongly suggest that Bartender's no longer trustworthy.

The former owner chimed in to discuss the ownership change and how it was handled: https://surteesstudios.com/a-new-chapter/

I can’t say the software is untrustworthy anymore but the whole ownership change was poorly handled and I can’t blame anyone wanting to jump ship after that.

Did we really know the previous owners then any more? But somehow trust was extended to them. Maybe the incentives to keep the gold goose brand alive selling the same products and upgrades outweighs the temporary potential value of a security researcher finding your Mac utility was actually trojaned to be a clandestine intelligence gathering app or a boiler-room ransomware vector. Not everyone is a malicious FOSS contributor and paranoia shouldn't be the first instinct.

I saw that as well, but haven't had time to think much about it or explore alternatives. Thanks for reminding me.

ICE https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice is an amazing alternative for Bartender.

Calca, the math sketchpad. Basically, you get a plaintext file that understands variables and formulas. There are more robust and featureful implementations of this concept, but nothing else I’ve found is quite so easy to use.

http://calca.io/

Nice app! What are the other more robust/featureful ones in this category?

Soulver: https://soulver.app

Back when I tried it, it felt more like an advanced calculator with a text interface than a "magical calculating plaintext file" to me, which is what I want. But lots of people love it.

The other option is something like a Jupyter notebook, or perhaps a Swift playground. But those are not nearly as easy to set up and use.

Just for fun, here's my most recent Calca file. The numbers after "=>" are calculated by the app. Note that it understands (and converts) units of measurement.

  # Alcohol Math
  
  drinks(x, abv) = (x in floz) * abv / 0.6 floz
  
  angostura bitters = 44.7%
  templeton rye = 45.75%
  fernet branca = 39%
  tanqueray 10 gin = 47.3%
  fred jerbis vermouth = 18%
  
  #trinidad sour
  drinks(45 mliters, angostura bitters) + drinks(17 mliters, templeton rye ) => 1.5719
  
  #hanky panky
  drinks(45 mliters, tanqueray 10 gin) + drinks(45 mliters, fred jerbis vermouth) + drinks(7.5 mliters, fernet branca) => 1.8209

I’m a Soulver fan.

- Arc Browser – a complete game changer in terms of productivity – this app alone is worth switching from Windows/Linux (They have a Windows version, but it's lagging behind, not to mention there's no Android version and sync)

- AeroSpace Window Manager since i got to know it this week (replacing Wins, which replaced free Rectangle)

- Sensei for hardware checks/cleanups

- Yomu for ebooks

- Xnapper for beautiful screenshots for marketing/social media

- Boom 3D for sound enhancement

- ImageOptim for mass optimizing images and removing metadata

- GoLogin for multiple browser profiles/anonymization for work

- IINA for watching video files

I try to be as minimalist as possible with app installations.

Could you explain what makes Arc Browser a game changer in terms of productivity?

I use Firefox with a vertical tabs extension and based on the screenshots it looks very similar (also, using Firefox Containers solves the same problem as GoLogin afaict)

Arc also allows you to large-scale organization of tabs with 'spaces'. I have been using Arc (including now) for a few months and find it provides much more efficient organization than Chrome, Safari and Firefox -- however, I have not attempted to use extensions for navigation/organization improvements as you have.

Spaces sound somewhat similar to "panels" in Sidebery for Firefox, they can be used to split workspaces, e.g. for different projects/clients. You can make each panel use a different container, which is helpful to be logged in with different users on the same websites. You can also "unload" panels easily to save RAM and to ignore them until the next time you work on them.

I also use ImageOptim.

Also:

  - NameChanger for bulk renaming files
  - Day-O as a quick calendar
  - GrandPerspective for finding out what's using disk space

Interesting that Arc Browser is reason enough to switch from windows or Linux. I see a people love it, but it doesn’t do well for my ADHD brain.

I'm yet to try it out, thus curious. Why it wouldn't work for ADHD. Also what other browser do you suggest? I currently use Safari and Librewolf.

Most Important Apps

- Amphetamine: A powerful tool to prevent your Mac from sleeping or going into standby mode, useful for extended work sessions.

- Rectangle: A window management app that helps you organize and snap windows to predefined areas on your screen. (Note: This functionality will be built-in with MacOS Sequoia.)

- Appcleaner: A utility for thoroughly uninstalling unwanted apps and cleaning up residual files, ensuring your Mac stays clutter-free.

- Datagrip: A robust database manager by JetBrains, providing advanced tools and support for various database systems.

- Oh My Zsh: A delightful, open-source, community-driven framework for managing your Zsh configuration, and enhancing your terminal experience with themes and plugins.

Nice To Have Apps

- Anydesk: A remote desktop application that allows you to access and control your Mac from anywhere.

- ChatGPT Official App: The official app for OpenAI's ChatGPT, providing convenient access to AI-powered conversations.

- Goodnotes: A digital note-taking app that's great for iPad users, offering seamless cross-device support for handwritten and typed notes.

- Notion: A versatile workspace app for note-taking, task management, and project collaboration.

- OpeninTerminal: A handy utility to open your terminal directly from Finder, saving time for developers and power users.

- Postman: An essential tool for API development, testing, and documentation.

- Termius: A secure and versatile SSH client that supports remote access to servers and network devices.

- Grammar Desktop: An application to enhance your writing by checking grammar and style.

Proxyman

Just a great mitm tool that I use for work but also for just looking at random apis that I come across on my day-to-day web use. I just love it, you can do so much with it.

if i had to recommend 1 app/script that i use daily: https://github.com/banga/git-split-diffs

`karabiner elements` (https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/) to disable things like "Apple + Q" -> nothing worse than going to close a single tab and then your whole app quits. also able to re-map caps-lock into escape, ect

`iterm2` for terminal (colored tabs are great; albeit i disable the hell out of many of the options like "clickable urls" ect)

for cli, i try to gnu all-the-things (and i just explode my PATH to the paths `brew` installed dynamically - will try another package manager at a future date)

`sublime text`

`firefox`/`librewolf` + plugins (containers, netmon, request interceptor, dark reader, adnauseam)

[Yoink](https://eternalstorms.at/yoink/mac/) is something I love that I haven't seen mentioned.

Dragging things around between desktops (especially with a track pad) is annoying and Yoink solves it.

Things 3, really polished todo/personal task manager app. I also use on iOS and Apple Watch. Blackhole, sound routing e.g recording os audio when screen recording.

Adding two more indispensible ones for me:

Brightness Control https://www.splasm.com/brightnesscontrol/ The only macOS app that is actually able to properly dim my monitor beneath the lowest brightness setting without hacks like painting an overlay above your desktop such that it blinds my eyes when ever I switch workspaces.

Cursorcerer https://doomlaser.com/cursorcerer-hide-your-cursor-at-will/ Lets me bind a shortcut key to hide my cursor.

Hazel - for file automation

Dropover - Any file you are dragging, just wiggle it and a little shelf shows up where you can put it temporarily

Shottr/Cleanshot - For markup and pinning info on the screen

I also use quite a lot of my own written software

ScreenMemory - It's similar to Rewind/Recall (but without AI), I revisit days before standups and retrospectives

Monkey Notes - Sticky notes that attach to application windows

DevControls - Basically a list of repositories with shortcuts, this is a reimplementation of scripts I used to have in BitBar/xbar/SwiftBar (which in themselves are amazing applications)

I also have a custom fork of the much recommended Rectangle with some more mouse driven interactions that I've been using for almost two years.

While I try to stick with cross platform utilities whenever possible, the list below contains both MacOS-only and cross platform tools I use daily and could not live without:

# GUI Tools

  - Alacritty -- Cross platform, lightweight terminal emulator
  - Rancher Desktop -- Better Docker desktop experience
  - Alfred -- Replaces spotlight for me
  - Amphetamine -- Keep laptop awake
  - Rectangle -- Window snapping
  - `notunes` -- Prevents iTunes from popping up (brew install notunes)

#CLI Tools

  - Homebrew -- package manager
  - `lazyvim` -- neovim with a lot of stuff pre-configured.
  - `tmux` -- terminal multiplexer
  - PagerDuty CLI - https://github.com/martindstone/pagerduty-cli
  - Silver Searcher `ag` -- faster grep (brew intall the_silver_searcher)
  - Github cli -- `gh` (brew install gh)
  - `fzf` -- fuzzy finder (brew install fzf)
  - `jq` and `yq` -- Parse json and yaml respectively (brew install jq yq)

Besides the usual Firefox/Chrome, Spotify, etc I use the following:

- Karabiner-Elements[0] for key remapping, specifically, for making caps lock into ctrl/esc. I don't know of anything else that does this job. Everyone who remaps keys seems to use this.

- Kitty[1] as my terminal of choice. I spend most of my time logged in remotely to a server via ssh where I attach to a tmux session. Kitty was easy enough to configure/theme and seems well-documented.

- Hammerspoon[2] for a DIY automation/keybinding/window management sys scriptable via lua. I use a private fork of this config: https://github.com/jasonrudolph/keyboard/tree/main

- Vivid[3] to make my macbook's screen brighter when outdoors on sunny days. This is important for me, since I try to spend as much time outside as possible.

[0] https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/

[1] https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

[2] https://www.hammerspoon.org/

[3] https://www.getvivid.app/

Latest MacOS allows rebinding caps lock now BTW. Actually might be the last two or three.

It only allows simple rebinds, although maybe this makes Karaviner-Elements not necessary for most people.

MacOS can do caps lock to control or caps lock to escape. I bind caps lock to escape if pressed alone or control if pressed together with another key.

Default Folder X: Open/Save dialog enhancer.

Copy ‘Em: Copy/paste enhancer.

Little Snitch: Hugely useful firewall.

Parallels for virtualization.

Find Any File: Search for stuff in /System and /Library not in Spotlight index.

Cookie: Manage cookies.

Lulu is a good free alternative for Little Snitch

I'll try to point out some things I haven't seen in the list so far:

- https://github.com/zorgiepoo/Komet for Git/Hg/etc commit messages

- https://apps.apple.com/th/app/multi-monitor-wallpaper/id5042... for splitting a single (large) wallpaper over multiple displays

- https://proxie.app for network traffic inspection

- https://apps.apple.com/th/app/the-clock/id488764545?mt=12 for a multi timezone-aware clock

- https://apps.apple.com/th/app/patterns-the-regex-app/id42944... for quickly writing/checking Regular Expressions

- https://tableplus.com for an RDBMS client

LaunchBar, whose primary purpose isn't nearly as necessary since Spotlight mostly took up that functionality (can you tell I've been using it for a while?), but provides both very quick access to a simple calculator, and a pretty robust clipboard manager.

HiDock, which automatically switches my Dock between left-edge (when I'm using my laptop on its own) and bottom-edge (when I have it docked with the much larger screen on my desk).

iStatMenus, which makes it vastly easier to tell when my Bluetooth mice and keyboards need charging.

Fluor, which automatically switches my function keys between their macOS "media/feature key" setting and standard function keys based on app (primarily so I can use them as intended in games like Final Fantasy XIV).

MacPorts, IMO still the superior macOS package manager. I honestly don't know why Homebrew suddenly started getting so much attention several years ago, to the point that many devs don't even appear to know that there is another option, when MacPorts is older and doesn't take over an otherwise highly useful directory (/usr/local; MacPorts uses /opt/local).

CopyClip https://apps.apple.com/us/app/copyclip-clipboard-history/id5... allows you to retain and access your clipboard history.

I would be lost without it. It's gotten me out of so many jams.

Just have to be careful about not needlessly keeping around sensitive data.

Craft - it's a nice note taking app with great sync. I use it on my Mac and iPhone daily.

Fork - one of the better git GUIs.

Rectangle - open source app to manage window layouts

- Homebrew: Package Manager [https://brew.sh/]

- Rectangle: window management [https://rectangleapp.com/]

- KeepingYouAwake: a small program for the menu bar that wraps around the caffeinate command line utility [https://keepingyouawake.app/]

- Maccy: clipboard manager [https://maccy.app/]

- CotEditor: plain-text Editor [https://coteditor.com/]

- Progressive Downloader: download manager [https://www.macpsd.net/]

- AppCleaner: uninstall unwanted apps [https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/]

Alternative to Keeping you awake Id recommend is Amphetamine (app, not drug), much more customizable.

Note that I’ve noticed that it consumes quite a bit of CPU on average over time, if you use the “monitor app/process” functionality.

(reported it to the Developer. It basically runs some `ps -a …` command every x seconds.)

* MacPorts: Everything you need to make Apple Unix equivalent to a Linux box, plus more. Works with the Apple OS, not against it. Doesn't put things in weird places or expect to disable SIP etc. Updates the old versions of CLI stuff that is in the standard MacOS (eg bash, GNU utilities etc).

* iTerm2: Awesome terminal

* Karabiner/Elements: Set up keyboard mappings with more flexibility than the standard settings. https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/

In terms of MacOS stuff to enhance the out-of-the-box:

* Bartender to control what shows on the menu bar https://www.macbartender.com/ (note, it has recently changed hands and people are suggesting to use "Ice" instead)

* Rectangle: To control windows and screens via the keyboard

* Arq: Better than Time Machine, allows selective backups and supports multiple destinations (OneDrive, NAS, etc)

* Monitor Control: Controls brightness across multi-screen setups https://github.com/MonitorControl/MonitorControl#readme

* Stats: Puts various meters in your menu bar (CPU, fans, network etc) https://github.com/exelban/stats

* Spotify Notifications: Uses standard notifications to show latest spotify track playing etc https://www.spotify-notifications.app/

* Dash: Awesome documentation tool for development, integrates with multiple other tools. https://kapeli.com/dash

You mentioned Arq being better than Time Machine. How do you actually use it ?

My personal use is Time Machine for local backups, and Arq for remote backups. My reasoning is that TM is built in, and allows me to rapidly restore my machine in case of disk failure.

I've always found Arq to have a rather clumsy restore dialog, and you need to create a temporary user account to restore your normal user account, or at least you needed to do that last time i checked.

I backup using Arq to a local NAS and to OneDrive because I got free storage there as part of an Office 365 sub.

<fingers crossed> haven't had to restore, but have verified the backups.

The problem I had with Time Machine is that I wanted to configure what to backup and avoid some things like work vs personal etc.

I do pretty much the same thing, though i backup locally to a NAS via TM, and remote to OneDrive using Arq.

Like you, i've also never had to restore, but i somewhat frequently (every 30 days) verify my backups, and i've never encountered a problem with Arq. TimeMachine also appears to have become a whole lot better at not corrupting your backups every n days, but i guess that's APFS at work for you.

The one remaining thing i have left is to figure out the "proper" way to backup iCloud only storage. Currently i have an app on each users device that uploads photos to a NAS, and each users laptop then backs up that share on the NAS to the cloud when Arq runs (i use scheduled snapshots on the NAS so no backup NAS to NAS for local).

While it "works", i don't completely trust it, and i would much prefer a better way. I'm aware i can put the photo library on an external drive and download originals, but that's not very practical for people that bring their laptops with them, and also access photo libraries on the go.

The only other solution i've come up with, is to have a dedicated "always on" machine, where each user logs in through remote desktop, and have that download originals for all users, but it requires me to remember to ask each person to login to the machine every time it's rebooted, which again is a chore, and i much prefer something automated that runs on the persons own devices instead of a centralized setup.

I actually broke down and I'm paying the exorbitant Apple tax for the extra iCloud storage for photos etc to deal with syncing between phone/mac/ipad etc.

Oh i'm paying that as well, i'm talking about backing up the photos stored in iCloud, and preferably in an automated way.

Apple's official documentation[1] simply says to login manually to icloud.com, select the photos you want to backup, and download a ZIP file. I have 3.5TB photos in iCloud...

It's enough that i can't even purchase a Mac that has the needed amount of storage, nor should it be necessary to mirror all data locally before backing it up. All i want is a way to backup my iCloud Photos locally without storing them twice (locally). It works for Documents in iCloud, and Arq handles those well, but because Photos is "special", when it stores "optimized versions" of your photos, it actually replaces your local versions with lower resolution images, so even if you backup your iCloud photo library, you still don't have all the data.

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/108306

I like this one for syncing from iCloud Photos on my NAS: https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do...

Sadly it doesn't work with Advanced Security enabled in iCloud :/

Ultimately this is a problem for Apple to solve.

1Blocker — Ad Blocker Bear — For note taking Calendar 366 — Mostly for its Menu Bar feature Homebrew — Package Manager Magnet — Window Manager NetNewsWire — RSS Reader PopClip — Adds iOS like pop-overs to macOS Solstice — Sunrise/Sunset times StopTheMadness — Safari Better Web Extension Tailscale Things — Todos VSCode

Calendar 366 seems nice, thanks for the tip.

- Alfred: Spotlight replacement that is free and has lots of extensions.

- Rectangle: Window management

- A Better Finder Rename: (not actually daily) A nice GUI for renaming large numbers of files

- Day One: A journaling app. I'm not willing to pay a subscription for that (I have strong feelings about App subscriptions) but the unpaid version is fine for me.

I try to use as few things as possible, here's the highlights:

- Alfred -> Launcher and some small tools

- Rectangle -> Simple keykinds to move windows around, easier/simpler than a full tile manager

- Alacritty -> Anything other than the default Terminal

- Obsidian -> Best note-taking app I've found

- TickTick -> Todolist, Calendar and Habit Tracker, syncs with phone, love it

Obsidian +1

Rectangle - just works window manager

Owly - stop sleep / keep screen on, like caffeine app from years ago

iterm2 - terminal that looks nice and just works, using zsh and oh-myzsh for basic theming.

I user Nord color scheme everywhere https://www.nordtheme.com/ports

I’m happy with Amphetamine as my Caffeine replacement but will try Owly out of interest.

Came here to recommend rectangle and iterm.

Sublime Merge: git client

Karabiner: mostly map my mouse back button to previous page gesture for web browsing.

ITerm2: just a good terminal

Sublime Text: text editor

IINA: video player

I will second IINA. It's not the swiss army knife that VLC is, but it seems to stream videos from a NAS with better/smoother performance than VLC, and its interface is more mac-native.

Don't forget full HDR support of IINA that VLC and most other alternatives on Apple Silicon don't have.

However, VLC still provides the best subtitle style customizations.

Things - Reliable, maclike and generally well thought out/polished piece of productivity software. Stand out feature is its hotkeys and os integration make capturing useful reminders of what needs doing as it comes in from various sources quick (== far less likely to be forgotten).

Things is a beautiful app but the lack of end-to-end encryption is a deal breaker. You can’t even legally use it for certain things if you’re covered by certain laws. You’re a doctor living in the US? Don’t dare put “check on Mrs. Smith” in there. You’ll need one app for HIPAA things and another for everything else.

Alfred, quick task launcher and more

iAWriter, lightweight writing-focused text-editor

Little Snitch, network monitor, app firewall

Don’t discount the native apps, expeically if you have an iphone/ ipad. Here are some others that I haven’t seen listed:

Fork (Git Client), RapidAPI, Fantastical (great for showing reminders on a calendar), openEmu (vintage game emulator), lulu/ lilsnitch (network monitor), craft (an alternative to obsidian), soundSource (because along with windows management, OSX also dosen’t have basic sound management), postgress app, paper (markdown editor), Zed (text editor)

Finally, some very pricy but IMO, best of “Mac” software: iA Writer/ Presenter, Omnisuite, Nova (Editor), Things(GTD), Little Snitch.

Sketch (https://www.sketch.com/) they have brought back stand alone license without subscription hell.

Handbrake - Video conversion

Eagle (https://eagle.cool/) collecte and organize all design//visual inspiration at one place(this is also my default screengrab app)

Monodraw - Flowchart, ASCII, Visual thinking app

• Alfred - Productivity App for macOS [1]

• iTerm2 - macOS Terminal Replacement [2]

• Dropshare App - upload anything anywhere on macOS [3]

• Mimestream - A native macOS email client for Gmail [4]

• Things - To-Do List for Mac & iOS [5]

[1] https://www.alfredapp.com

[2] https://iterm2.com

[3] https://dropshare.app

[4] https://mimestream.com

[5] https://culturedcode.com/things

Pixelmator Pro is a fantastic Photoshop replacement I’ve been using for years.

I've loved Pixelmator from the beginning, but I just can't get used to the new UI of Pro. :/

- LittleSnitch (https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html)

- Itsycal (https://www.mowglii.com/itsycal/)

- Kitty (https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/)

- Magnet (https://magnet.crowdcafe.com)

Stupidly simple app but I find myself using every day. Free Ruler. https://apps.apple.com/se/app/free-ruler/id1483172210?l=en-G...

Great suggestions here. I'm using Warp Terminal regularly (https://www.warp.dev/) which works for me very well but Alacritty and iTerm2 (my last go to) are only being mentioned. Should I be worried!

- Kitty Terminal (used to use iTerm), with Jetbrains Mono Nerd font, custom colors, powerline-status, oh my zsh, fzf, brew etc

- Obsidian

- Jetbrains

- Arc

- 2 other side projects that solve personal problems

---

Kitty for all the reasons for alacritty but there are tabs. The other tools I mentioned just improve quality of life.

Obsidian for notes- everything markdown files synced with icloud, works with phone and windows PC.

Jetbrains is my favorite suite of IDEs by far due to what I think of as "fearless coding" - but vscode has come a long way.

Arc is the least bad browser imo. It's hard to build a great browser.

Lots of good apps here, but I haven’t seen Shottr, yet. Amazing screenshotting tool, I use it all the time.

Fmail2 app for a more native fastmail client is also very nice.

Since the built-in screenshot & screen recording stuff on Mac is already so good, I feel like a third party tool to take screenshots would have to be really amazing for me to consider it instead, I guess the benefits of this one is the annotation stuff?

The annotation tools are really, really good. The colour palette seems well thought out to easily highlight important parts of screenshots. It’s been very helpful when collaborating with people, annotating graphs and logs on the fly.

Raycast - hands down the best one.

MeetingBar - simply does it's job. simple and effective. has inyourface functionality in place.

Arc - wanna jump off to Safari but I think Arc is still the best one so far.

Obsidian - I'm new to it but "file-first" approach looks good.

1Password - still nothing beats it.

KarabinerElements+goku - to have it configurable. have layers of keybinding to launch something. Like ".+i" will open iTrem2 and so on.

Ice - just landed my setup.

Yabai - tiling window manager

Raycast - better spotlight

Zed - fun text editor for pair programming

f.lux - makes the color temperature warmer at night, much more configurable than the built-in night mode

nix-darwin and home-manager are a great way to manage installed apps and configurations on a Mac. I have slowly been moving everything into my configs.

- Arc Browser

- Typora : a markdown editor

- Flux : screen color temperature adjuster

- Rectangle : window management

- Transmission : torrent downloader

- Pika : color picker

- IINA : video player

- Quickshade : to go below minimal luminosity

- The Unarchiver : for unsupported compressed file

I'm very happy with qBittorrent, in case you want to try something different.

All these have been mentioned but I can't live without them:

- Rectangle - Hazel - iStat Menus - Homebrew - iTerm2

Some others:

- One Thing, puts a single task/note/etc. in your menu bar - Übersicht, desktop widgets (uses React) - Be Focused Pro, make using the Pomodoro method a breeze - Informant, shows a selected file's size without using Get Info

I like Be Focused Pro but it’s not end to end encrypted and their privacy policy gives them lots of permission to use your data: https://xwavesoft.com/privacy-policy.html

I switched to Focus.

Rectangle - Window Management

Firefox - WebBrowers Because it's not Google

Folx - BitTorrent & Download Manager

Wireguard - VPN

DisplayLinkManager - Multi Display Manager

DrawIO - Diagram Software

Warp - Terminal

IINA - Video Player

CodeEdit - Text & Code Editor

Bitwarden - Password Management

Lingon - launchctl ui

Affinity - single pay Adobe alternative

Kitty - terminal that gets out of your way

Safari - most people hate it but I love how battery efficient it is

Perhaps relevant, I'm working on a repo for indexing IT repair tools (I call it Hacker Tools) for Windows, Mac, Linux. I'm looking for contributions and feedback.

https://github.com/neontomo/hacker-tools

MindNode is a delightful mind mapping app.

SoundSource if you're jumping between headphones and speakers or docking stations.

Path Finder. Better than Finder.

POPclip deserves its own entry. It adds an action menu popup to any selected text. I find it indispensable. (I'm told that IOS has similar features.)

https://www.popclip.app/

> MacBook Air.

A little off topic, but were you aware that you'll never be able to use more then 1 monitor with that before your purchase?

I use a MacBook pro for work. I would've preferred the air variant to, but the artificial segmentation forced me to go for the heavier Pro

Also, DisplayLink makes hardware that will allow adding more monitors to Macs and PCs that don't usually allow them. I have their addons for both Mac and Dell laptops at home. https://www.synaptics.com/products/displaylink-graphics

You can connect 2 monitors to the M3 MacBook Air, if the laptop is closed.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/117373

I knew this going in so went with an ultra wide monitor, no regrets.

My favourite less known app: https://www.inyourface.app/ - This amazing app throws up a fullscreen modal dialog with a countdown to your next calendar meeting and has a button to click to open the Google Meet, etc. I set mine to countdown 1 minute before it starts. I'm almost always on-time for meetings now. It's also included in SetApp.

SetApp - Mentioning now because I mention below ones included in SetApp, it's a monthly all-you-can-eat subscription to a few hundred mac apps. It's an alternative to purchasing them separately. It may well work out cheaper in the long run to just buy them but it's a useful option.

Adjust third-party Monitor Brightness - Lunar.app for a standalone tool with the most features (can automate and sync the brightness adjustments with time of day, your laptop monitor, etc). But basic control with the keyboard buttons is possible also from BetterDisplay. DisplayBuddy is another tool in this space. They have varying features and pricepoints.

BetterDisplay - Enables HiDPI support (e.g. "more space", "more text", etc) on third party displays - makes text size bigger for people that prefer it on 1440p/Ultrawide QHD displays nicer for many and apparently much nicer for 4K displays for most people though I've not used a 4K.

Multitouch - My current favourite of the various tools that both let you snap windows to the left/right half (or third, etc) PLUS let's you assign three finger click on your touchpad to middle click for opening tabs in Chome. There are a bunch of others apps in these spaces but this is my current favourite in terms of the exact features I need, in 1 app, with a good price point. See also BetterTouchTool (also in SetApp), Rectangle)

iTerm2 - Mostly I love Terminal.app, except, when screen sharing in chrome it won't share multiple tabs for some reason, plus, it's the only terminal emulator on any platform that supports tmux integration mode so you can open multiple screens on a remote SSH server that appear as physical tabs or windows locally.

Secretive - Creates SSH keys in the secure enclave that cannot be exfiltrated by Malware, optionally it can either support "No Auth" or require TouchID/Password for each use. I have one of each style, for differing security levels of hosts.

yubikey-agent - Automates using your YubiKey as an SSH agent and makes it work every time you plug/replug.

Karabiner Elements - one of a few different ways to make home/end on third-party keyboards work on macOS.

More commonly known ones: iStat Menus (also in SetApp)

* Homebrew - Package manager (kinda like apt/rpm on Linux).

* Secretive - Stores SSH keys in the secure enclave [https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive]

* Alfred - Better spotlight [https://www.alfredapp.com/]

* Hazel - File automations [https://www.noodlesoft.com/]

* Arq - Excellent backup software for local and/or remote backups [https://arqbackup.com/]

* ChronoSync - File synchronization on steoroids [https://www.econtechnologies.com/chronosync/overview.html]

* Launch Control - Easily edit and control those Launchctl files [https://www.soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/]

* Sublime Text - Excellent and fast text editor [https://www.sublimetext.com/]

* Sublime Merge - Excellent Git UI [https://www.sublimemerge.com/]

* Zed - Currently evaluating if it can replace Sublime Text [https://zed.dev/]

* Little Snitch - Network Monitor and Application Firewall [https://obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html]

* KnockKnock/BlockBlock/Oversight - Various malware monitoring and detection [https://objective-see.org/index.html]

* Draw.io - Diagramming tool [https://www.drawio.com/]

* Iterm2 - Terminal Replacement [https://iterm2.com/]

I use a bunch of other apps, but the above are probably the most broadly applicable :)

- MacJournal

- Inkscape

- Reaper

- iA Writer

- Transmit

- LocalSend

- homebrew/cli: ffmpeg, imagemagick, pyenv, nvm

- Sublime, but I'm using it less and less. I tried so hard to support it and have bought multiple upgrades. But, the plugin system and environment handling is terrible. I dread setting it up on new installs or machines.

I’ve been using Meld Studio as a replacement for OBS. My use case is recording educational screencasts mostly. Very easy to have a rounded facecam on top of a screen capture.

iTerm2 in Quake mode is also one of the first things i install.

CleanShot X is one of the most well-designed pieces of software out there imo.

I second this. I encourage all our designers to grab it. It really is a godsend for anyone who takes a ton of screenshots.

Recently I learned that there is a decent little video editor baked in too (and you can even open pre-existing videos).

MonitorControl. It helps you control the brightness on external displays. It looks and works like a native feature.

Homebrew to install stuff.

SelfControl to block websites and be productive.

iTerm is a better terminal.

Was textgrabber mentioned?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/textgrabber/id1511809489

Surprised no one has mentioned LiceCap - www.cockos.com/licecap/

Free GPL app to record a screen recording directly to animated gif.

I use it to add an embedded video of a bug or tutorial to an issue tracker.

Grab a free trial of SetApp to try out a whole range of great Mac apps. If you like (and end up using) a lot of them, it may be worth paying the SetApp subscription, or buying the apps individually.

Has anyone used the SigmaOS browser? I was surprised to learn that Orion isn't the only new WebKit browser project right now:

https://sigmaos.com

I like Typinator, which lets me automate (and customise) frequently typed text: https://ergonis.com/typinator

At some point I used that too, but it's kind of built-in nowadays.

espanso

If I might add my own - TechniCalc - https://jacobdoescode.com/technicalc

I'm retired, but I really like coding, so... LiveCode. I have several apps that I wrote for myself that I use daily, and edit almost as often :-). (A HyperCard descendant.)

Camera Graph - OBS replacement, Mac native.

Better touch tool - remote cursor access + window snapping and a huge amount of configurability.

Iterm2 - don’t know how folks enjoy using the VSCode terminal all day.

Backblaze - simple backup.

- Raycast for clipboard history and window management (it uses Rectangle internally)

- TripMode for reducing data usage while tethering

- KeyboardCleanTool for disabling the keyboard when wiping it down

My list: https://untested.sonnet.io/Default+Apps+2023

(+ alacritty and neovim)

- Brightintosh (use the increased brightness (1000 nits) of the integrated XDR display)

- raycast (window management, shortcuts, etc.)

- tailscale (private mesh vpn)

- linear (issue management)

Vlc media player instead of QuickTime player. It's hard to set defaults in Mac, you have to manually do for each extension.

DaVinci resolve for video editing.

QuickTime for recording.

Most of mine are listed here already. Four are worth adding: fusion, for audio, pixelmator, for images, Kitty, the terminal, and Alfred, which is like raycast.

Caffeine. Really hate those corporate lock screen requirements. Unfortunately haven't found one for Windows.

- Textexpander - text shortcuts - Thyme - simplest time tracker possible

Alfred, Choosy, DBngin, Flux, IINA, iStat Menus, Ice, Karabiner Elements, keepingyouawake, Little Snitch, übersicht

Hammerspoon. It completely transformed the way I interact with macOS. There's nothing else like it.

I use Cinch instead of rectangle. It only snaps left 1/2 and right 1/2, which is all i want.

- homebrew

- 1clipboard

- kitty terminal

- raycast

- yabai tiling WM ( i still prefer it over magnet or rectangle )

- icemenubar ( i prefer it over bartender )

- busycalendar ( expensive, but so good )

- trillium notes

- iina video player

- bitwarden

- speedcrunch

- firefox

- jetbrains IDEs

Shameless plug here, but, for different reasons, I have to have bluetooth disabled on my iPhone at work, so I can't use AirDrop. Instead, I'm using WireDrop to transfer files via USB. I made the app only for this specific purpose.

[0]: https://wiredrop.app

Spectacle for window management. Clipy for clipboard history. Flux for managing color temp.

Microsoft Edge as the browser.

The split tab view is surprisingly handy for me, which is a group of two tabs you can drag around. It sounds like an inferior windows manager, but I use laptop with no monitor, so splitting into more than 2 windows doesn't make sense anyway.

omnifocus by omnigroup. todo amphetamine. nosleep

Raycast + any terminal + any editor in general

nvalt - fastest notetaking / search in markdown.

mailmate - best mailclient i've used

karabiner-elements - great key mappings editor

Asahi Linux.

How does that answer the question?

kaleidoscope - diff anything

Bear for markdown/notes

Dashlane for password manager

OrbStack which is a much better docker alternative

DaisyDisk for disk cleanup

IINA for video playback

Rectangle, MonitorControl

iTerm2, Brave Browser for privacy and no ads, Sublime Text.

sips for converting image content to web-friendly formats

First, I'll say that you should take the time to get to know the features of the OS, before running out and getting a bunch of 3rd party utilities.

In terms of built in stuff you may or may not already know about if coming from another platform...

- Spotlight: (⌘space) launch apps, universal search, basic calculator, etc

- QuickLook: (space when a file is selected in Finder, space again to close it) Preview a wide variety of files. This sometimes extends into apps as well, like previewing attachments in Outlook or Mail.

- Preview: This app is much more powerful than it lets on.

- Markup: Do basic annotation of images or documents in Preview or QuickLook.

- TextEdit has a plain text mode, I've seen countless "authorities" in Mac education get this wrong. The option to toggle rich text vs plain text is in the Format menu. The settings let you choose the default type of file when you open a new file. It's not going to be your code editor or anything, but it's good to know.

- Image Capture can pull photos off a camera or iPhone, if you don't want to use Photos, or some random 3rd party app.

- Script Editor: For a long time this only supported Apple Script, which made me think it was going to die. But they quietly updated it to support Javascript, so you can do some local desktop automation with Javascript now. Thought I don't think it's as well supported as it once was in some of Apple's new apps. Of course Shortcuts is also there for a more visual scripting option.

- Finder: Show the Path Bar and Status Bar (in the View menu). This used to be the default for the OS, and I think it still should be.

- Not sure if there is a name for it, but you can copy text out of images and videos. This has been a game changer for me. At work, when someone is sharing a website, I can screenshot the presentation, QuickLook the image, and click on the URL to open it in my browser. I do this almost daily.

In terms of 3rd party apps...

- NotePlan: I use this instead of more traditional To Do apps. I can plan based on the year, month, week, or day, with a free form text doc I can arrange how I want, with templates I can design. The files are plain text docs, so I'm not locked in. Obsidian can do something similar with enough plugins, but this seems cleaner to me.

- Plex/PlexAmp: I have a Plex server running on a NAS. PlexAmp can use used on my mac or phone to play music in my library.

- Hush: A Safari extension to turn off all those cookie prompts on websites

- IINA: Video player for when Quicktime can't handle something. I switch away from VLC, because I got so tired of it adding everything to a playlist, and there is no way to turn it off. With IINA I can simple open a file, watch it, and close it. A video player doesn't need to be any more than that.

- 1Password: Password manager. I've been using it basically forever. They seem to keep up on things pretty well and I haven't been left wanting.

- Firefox: An alternative to Safari (my primary browser) when I need it. I don't want any Chromium browsers on my system.

I perged a lot of 3rd party stuff a while back and these are some of the things that made the cut.

i disabled spotlight after it stopped searching the system preferences and also they reordered some items where apps which used to be at the top of the list (after entering a few chars in search) became 3rd place by default-apps that are part of the read-only system that macos provides...

took me only a day to forget i ever used apple+space for apps (though for non cli apps i still open finder to app-window to find some obscure thing in Applications ive forgotten names of)

I just tried searching for a few things the system prefs with Spotlight and it worked, I guess they brought it back.

I'm not always a fan of the order, but it's good enough for me. I used to head down the power user road for everything (I used Quicksilver in the pre-Spotlight days, used LaunchBar for a bit, PathFinder, etc), but I like being able to use a system without having to do a ton of setup. It also seemed like the people who had so many little utilities running that they needed yet another utility, like Bartender, to manage their menubar complained about their system being slow a lot. So the less I can run the better. These days something has to be really worth it, I tend to avoid installing something that replaces an OS function if it's just a marginal improvement.

I've toyed with the idea of not installing any 3rd party apps to see how far that takes me, but that's tough given my current wants/needs.

Is there a reason you go to Finder to open apps instead of using Launchpad? I throw it down in my dock, and even if I want to avoid the iOS-style full screen menu, a right-click on it works kind of like the start menu in Windows, listing all the apps/folders.

> but I like being able to use a system without having to do a ton of setup

i agree on this; i used to try to automate settings on macos but gaveup well over 10years ago as each os version changed plist files, and some settings only changeable via mouse-clicks; im sure there's been improvements nowadays but i wont hold my breath (just disable features i dispise now like notification-spam and auto-index/search "features")

the reason i use finder is finder is always open; apple+tab to it, then some hotkey to open Applications. if i can avoid the mouse (on the laptop) i will - although since mac keyboards are tiny they have been giving my hands cramps lately - so ive just slowed down a little lol.

launchpad: ive rarely used, typically disable its hot-corner thing too (i often prefer having layers of stacked windows vs "fresh desktops" or even tiling wm's)

ps nice handle lol

edit: i forgot to mention, i also use `open /Applicatons/bla` but going into Applications and seeing icon + list of names triggers some memory of why that app is there) - going to Applications is basically an edge case that happens rarely (use dock for terminal/browser) and thats about all i open

I am about to give up on Spotlight. I size the taskbar to minimum and permanently hide it, then use Spotlight to launch apps but the config frequently screws up and then fails to find Applications or preferences. Or sometimes takes 10+ seconds to find something. It's done this for me across multiple MacBooks, multiple versions of macOS, etc. All I want from Spotlight is instant finding of apps/utilities and systems prefs. I've tried so many solutions suggested across the internet (rebuilding refs, restarting indexing, etc) and nothing has consistently worked.

Another vote for Things 3. A simple and very polished to-do app. Really helps me be organised and I wish I could find a calendar app of similar quality/vibe.

Superhuman. Expensive and delightful email.

Velja. Opens URLs in preferred browser (Safari for everything except Meet, which opens in Chrome).

PS - I’m not a developer but really like Zed as a text editor.

Have you tried Todoist/TickTick recently and still found lacking?

I think what I missed was attachments... and when researching it really bothers me how people defend the design and invent the most interesting workarounds...

- Raycast launcher + UI in it's own right. (https://www.raycast.com/)

- Obsidian notes (https://obsidian.md/)

- Tailscale VPN (https://tailscale.com/)

- iTerm terminal app (https://iterm2.com)

- Rectangle Pro window manager (https://rectangleapp.com/pro) there's also a free version, I just prefer to support the author with a Pro purchase.

- Homebrew packager manager (https://brew.sh/)

- SwiftBar for menu bar applets. (https://swiftbar.app/)

- Visual Studio Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/)

- SyncThing for file syncing across hosts (https://syncthing.net/)

- Acorn image editor (https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/)

- 1Password password manager (don't necessarily recommend it, there's probably better/cheaper options.)

- Fantastical calendar app (https://flexibits.com/fantastical)

- MonitorControl third-party monitor utility (https://github.com/MonitorControl/MonitorControl#readme)

- DB Browser for SQLite (https://sqlitebrowser.org/)

- Handbrake for video conversion. (https://handbrake.fr/)

- IINA for videos. Prefer it over VLC Player. (https://iina.io/)

- The Unarchiver for misc compressed files. (https://theunarchiver.com/)

- Wi-Fi Explorer Pro for wi-fi stuff. (https://www.intuitibits.com/products/wifiexplorer/)

- Maestral if you want to use Dropbox without the cruft. (https://maestral.app/)

Personally I've found BetterDisplay to be better than MonitorControl.

Thanks, I'll take a look!

Stats

iTerm2 && vim

brew

Obsidian. Scrivener. FreePlane.

Scrivener is great.

Linux VM. /s

( sorry, couldn't resist :p )

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