I have been using MB for quite sometime (10 years) and use a ton of apps. But I always try to give this suggestion to folks I know. Don’t just install apps. Use it the way it is and see what you need and install the ones that assist you in better productivity.

I have the same philosophy for adding stuff to my house. Set it up gradually. You will every bit of new that you add.

For instance: I remember the time I started using Alfred in place of spotlight and I appreciated the things that spotlight did not provide. But immediately came to the realization that, almost 99% don’t even need or want these.

I and my wife are both software developers and both have 2 Macs each and did these gradual installations, and our set of apps is almost 100 (maybe 99%) different based on how we started needing more than just was provided with the MacBook.

Rectangle.

Fantastical is, well, fantastic. Rectangle is really great too (it allows for easy window snapping).

bettersnaptool

Raycast, DisplayBuddy - on sale!, Magnet - also on sale!, Gemini

Aldente, it will save your battery health

Rectangle and AltTab

Rectangle if you want window snapping kind of like how windows does it.

Daisydisk for storage management

Also a music app of some kind to enjoy the fantastic speakers on the pro MacBooks

Parallels (coherence is great for that seamless feel as if they were native Mac apps), istats (I mainly use it’d orbiter network monitor), bartender (declutter and have more space in the status bar), better touch tool (I use a Touch Bar MacBook, so that’s what I initially used it for, but it has since replaced a couple of other tools I previously used, you can customize touchpad gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and also includes windows snapping), aldente (to set max charge on and to help keep battery capacity longer, also Black Friday is coming up, and the dev has a history of offering a sale during this time, it’s usually the only time it gets discounted per year).

Parallels, Mac’s fan control, rectangle, lickable menu bar, utm, and iWork

dropzone

I like Magnet for window management and Screenflick for screen recording with useful tools

Adblock for safari from the app store and avg anti-virus the free one

100% Magnet App for Window Management

What are the specs?

What are you using it for? graphics design?

Hasn't been mentioned yet so I'll add--

LibreOffice is a great open-source, free alternative to Microsoft Office Suite as well as the Apple apps like Pages and Numbers. I personally have come to prefer it to both of those, regardless of cost.

I would recommend Linux Mint

Google chrome

Zerotier

Lets me connect all my stuff

Some of the ones I literally can’t use my Mac without:

• Alfred: Spotlight on steroids, clipboard history, automations, web shortcuts. This is my first install on any Mac.

• OwlOCR: Copy text from literally ANYWHERE on your screen (text in a video on YouTube? You can do it).

• Orion Browser: If you love chrome extensions, but still love the look and feel of Safari, this is the way.

• MOS: If you use a non-Apple mouse with your Mac, get this.

maccy (clipboard manager)

My suggestion list:

• MS Office
• Spotify
• Google Chrome
• VLC video player
• Quake 2 All other needs might be covered by default Apple apps.

For me :

• Rectangle fort shitty windowing in macos
• Brew as package manager that will make your life simplier if you have habit to work with the terminal
• Any cleaner like cleanmymac because of all “system data” junk left over by macos

They are essential for me

Ryujinx

Sims 4

iTerm2

rectangle will make it a lot easier

Rectangle, Alfred, Monitor Control (if you’re using external monitors), VMware Fusion, AppCleaner.

Definitely Arc for a browser

As others have pointed out, it does depend on what you want to do with your mac. That will drive what apps to put on it. For me personally, I develop software so of course the latest version of xCode, BBEdit (kinda like programmers notepad), OneNote for taking notes and Monosnap for screenshots. Enjoy the new rig!

Remind me! Tomorrow"read this thread"