Windows and Linux users what are your must have apps/programs when you set up MacOS for the first time?
Windows and Linux users what are your must have apps/programs when you set up MacOS for the first time?
For me these have entered into my must haves
- BetterDisplay: For better scaling support for external monitors
- Rectangle: To be able to use a mouse to drag and snap windows
- Pixea: To be able to double click an image with a mouse in any folder and then use arrow keys or scroll wheel to proceed to the next file in the folder. Replaced the stock preview with this.
Something I'm looking for now is the ability to use the forward and back buttons on my mouse when I'm in Finder and want to go back to the previous folder I was in. Doesn't work in Safari either. Works in good old dependable Firefox though.
And separate volume controls for each applications.
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How could I have forgotten iTerm2... These are all great suggestions though! Going to give Amphetamine and IINA a try!
Never heard of Scroll Reverser but it looks like it solves one of my pet peeves of macOS that should just exist natively.
IINA looks promising. Especially if it can output a HDR signal instead of tone mapping. Open source too!
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Massive fan of Hidden Bar, but now with a nodge it is lacking progression, but it seems this repo has picked up the pace: https://github.com/UeharaYou/HiddenBar
Some of my general programs
- Homebrew (https://brew.sh/)
- Magnet
- Shottr
- Velja
- Bitwarden
- Spark
- Firefox Nightly/Chrome
- Ferdium
- Pdf expert (before the subscription junk happened)/ PDF Studio
- Day progress
- Horo
- Obsidian
- Bartender (testing it)
Horo
For anyone reading this Horo is a timer for your menu bar. It’s simple but I can’t recommend it enough, I use it so often these days that I don’t know how I ever got by without it.
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Thanks will have to check this out!
Seconds this, Raycast also replaced Rectangle (window manager) and Maccy (clipboard manager) for me.
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With pixea I can just double click to open an image no matter the folder view it is set to and use arrow keys or scroll wheel to look through the images in the folder.
Meanwhile in Quick view I have to reach for the space bar. Mind you I'm using a macmini so my hands are more likely to not be near the space bar as it would be using a TouchPad on a laptop.
And then my preferred view is grid, but then the arrow key navigation stops at the row it started on instead of automatically proceeding to the next row. So I have to click down then have to use the opposite keys to look at the previews then down again and go the opposite direction. And scroll wheel navigation doesn't work either. So then if I want to use one key I have to go through the process of changing to list or column view so I can just click down to view the next. But, why would I have to do that? It just seems like too many unnecessary steps.
No need to highlight anything with Pixea. Or switch to space or whatever. Simply open the image and just look through the media in the folder with no extra steps, which more fits into my idea of simplicity that I expect from MacOS than the default behavior that doesn't feel mouse friendly either.
App Cleaner!
As a Mac user it is a bit of a shame that we need to depend on apps like this... Despite this app is awesome lol.
Sometimes getting rid of certain programs is like getting rid of malware lol.
BetterTouchTool
These are the Mac-exclusive apps I use regularly on my MacBook Pro 14" CotEditor Amazing open source text editor just for Mac BetterSnapTool for snapping windows (old school I know) Image2icon is useful for making my dock icons consistent TopNotch because the notch is annoying TG Pro because Macs get hot Keka because sometimes you run across a RAR or 7z file
These are just Mac apps, but I also use a bunch of cross-platform apps
CotEditor looks kind of like Notepad++ which I love for when I just want a simple text editor that is a little more functional that the default text editor without launching visual studio code. Thanks for the recommendations.
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I always had my own configuration set up but recently, I switched to NvChad and only change some details.
Suspicious Package: A great utility for inspecting the payload of a package, including scripts.
Macs Fan Control: Both a temp monitor and fan control. Especially useful on older Intel Macs.
Amphetamine: Good GUI for caffeinate.
coconutbattery: Monitor your battery health, cycles, etc.
The Unarchiver: Think 7-Zip for macOS.
Jamf Now: Stripped down version of Jamf, MDM for Apple devices. You get 3 devices for free. This is more if you want to dabble in endpoint management/light automation. You will get sales emails.
Lot of nice recommendations here. Particularly suspicious package.
AppCleaner
Check out LinearMouse. Can map buttons and is simple and minimal.
Maccy - clipboard app Alfred - launcher Iterm2 - terminal Firefox BettertouchTool - touchpad gestures Hidden bar - hide menu bar icons Itsycal - menubar calendar IINA - gui for mpv video player Keka - extract archives Espanso - text replacement
Hidden bar looks awesome to clean up the menu bar.
Microsoft Remote Desktop
Homebrew
Keka for RAR
I'll keep keka in mind for rar files.
Blockblock and Lulu from https://objective-see.org/
And three finger drag in accessibility options.
BetterTouchTool (which isn't free but is worth every penny) lets you do everything rectangle does. Also lets you configure your mouse buttons to do whatever you want. Also infinite custom hot keys and shortcuts.
Also Raycast as a replacement for Spotlight.
Raycast has replaced BetterTouchTool for me. I own a license for BTT, have it installed, but it's never running anymore.
Definitely check out the Contexts app.
It replaces some of the core window management features and can be configured to make Mac window management a bit more like what you're used to on Windows/Linux.
My MBP is largely a glorified SSH client. So, my must-haves are:
- homebrew
- Chrome and Firefox
- iterm2
- oh-my-zsh w/ Powerlevel10k
- Amethyst
I'm going to try out Kitty soon to replace iterm2.
App Cleaner (app uninstaller), Wipr (ad blocker), IINA (video player), Subtler (converts mkv to QuickTime readable files), Keka (unarchiver), and LinearMouse (no mouse acceleration and separate scroll directions).
beardie. i'm used to managing my music with alt+shift+{z,x,c} from my linux days, so thanks to beardie i can use the same bindings on macos
Swish
Can be used separate from or in conjunction with other snap-to apps. Instead of dragging your windows to the side to snap it there, you can simply flick it there on the trackpad.
If you’re looking for window tiling and keyboard shortcuts, Yabai and skhd are absolutely amazing. Add sketchybar to the mix and you can create an awesome and customizable alternative to the native Spaces.
Amethyst is good for tiling as well and doesn't require disabling security features, making it usable on company machines.
Another +1 for Rectangle.
For me, a semi-recent convert from Windows, a fresh install of macOS includes:
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Dropover, it has a limited free version (3 second wait time) or $5 for a one time ‘Pro’ version. It worked way better for me than Dropzone for copying files around and temporarily grabbing web images for Messages and Discord.
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Top Notch, its free to use and cleanly hides the notch and just provides a clean black space for the menu bar.
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SoundSource, yes its $40 and thats expensive af. However FOSS alternatives like Background Music kept crashing due to my external DAC. It’s a volume mixer, EQ tool, and audio IO selector.
And finally if I need to run Windows tools or applications for some of my hobbies, I have Parallels on an external drive. That way Windows isn’t hogging space and is isolated when I don’t need it.
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Linux
When I buy a laptop it always comes with windows. I always play with it a day or two. Install Linux and that's it. Have used osx or macOS a few times, but it's not my thing.
Anyway software I use (that probably also works with macOS).
Meld (tools to compare 2 text files)
Firefox (still the best open source browser)
VLC (video player)
Filezilla (ftp client)
Audacity (audio editor)
Franz (chat client for lots of services)I was kind surprised how kind of hacky the experience of MacOS has felt having to search out so many different apps just to try to get the OS to behave how I'd like compared to Linux where I'm pretty happy with the out the box experience, and can just stick more to the app store just to find programs like firefox as opposed to trying to find a bunch of different apps to "fix" the desktop behavior for something as simple as display scaling.
Like one I hope there is a solution to is double click being required when Multitasking with a browser where the windows needs to be activated before it accepts user input. Has led to things feeling unresponsive, since not even split screen or floating app multitasking on phones require that. But, I'm sure I'll get used to it, and it'll be fun in the future to try out Linux on the powerful and very great value MacMini when Asahi Linux makes progress.