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

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

#141

Post by thiht »

latchkey wrote: post #135
thiht wrote: post #132

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…

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

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

#142

Post by sinamim »

- 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/]

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

#143

Post by anVlad11 »

w10-1 wrote: post #58
anVlad11 wrote: post #29

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 Alac…

> 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.

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

#144

Post by atraac »

sinamim wrote: post #142

- 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…

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

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

#145

Post by flocked »

kcartlidge wrote: post #28

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 be…

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.

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

#146

Post by 8fingerlouie »

rswail wrote: post #114

* 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. htt…

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.

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

#147

Post by DavideNL »

atraac wrote: post #144
sinamim wrote: post #142

- 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…

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.)

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

#148

Post by wwalexander »

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.

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

#149

Post by 8fingerlouie »

* 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 :)

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

#150

Post by drcongo »

snkhan wrote: post #36

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.
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