Windows

Hand mirror is a great little tool that shows your camera anytime by clicking the icon in your toolbar. I love it

Download spectacle 2! It’s an app that lets you arrange your windows/apps in your screen with keyboard shortcuts and just super nice.

So if you want your notes on the left half, and the web browser on the right half, it just takes 2 keystrokes instead of dragging and hoping you get them lined up equally

Rectangle for window snapping like on windows, wish it was built into the OS by default on Mac but it’s pretty good once u know the shortcuts for snapping u have the ability to do it however you want

Make sure you have Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Garage Band, iMovie, and Safari.

Anything is just a bad knockoff.

on a serious note, it all depends on what you do with your machine. personally i like to swing for the open source projects that support what the native apple apps don’t: VLC vs. Quicktime, FireFox vs. Safari

I recently got the MBP M3 Pro 14" 512gb - upgraded from MBP 13" retina early 2015 and as I'm trying to sort out my files, I found Dropover to be the best app to move files around in groups . You can put them together on what they call a shelf before moving files. They can stay there until you're ready to move files.

You can try for 14 days and can purchase for just £4.99. I'm currently on the trial but I will definitely purchase this when it ends!

I highly recommend for you to try it out!! :)

First of congratulations, if you are tech savvy by any means. I recommend Homebrew for downloading stuff without having to drag apps into your applications folder. I also highly recommend Rectangle if you want to recreate snap desktops in macOS

Now I maybe an idiot and not picking up on the jokes, I'm back to Mac for the first time since Traumatic Brain Injury effected me in 2012 but I didn't think that cleaner and app uninstallers were necessary? I had heard decades ago that they can slow down your Mac, am I wrong about that?

So people are recommending you apps without even asking what you're using it for?

Rectangle for Window Manager!

Maccydroid if you have an Android. Link : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.arunm619.maccydroid

Parallels lol

IINA - Video player that is much better than Mac's built in one. HIGHLY Recommend this one, it's an amazing player

AppCleaner - A much better way to uninstall apps of MacOS, removes config files, and files that would be left behind normally under a typical install. It's a portable app, so it's not really "installed" on the system.
LinearMouse - fixes acceleration stuff for 3rd party mice, scrolling speed and acceleration, lets you have scrolling be independent of trackpad scroll direction if you prefer Natural Scrolling, etc.
RunCat - Not necessary, but just fun to have. The cat runs faster the harder your mac is working. Also makes it nice to check quickly your ram usage, cpu utilization, etc.

MonitorControl - App to control the brightness of 3rd party monitors

Alfred

https://rectangleapp.com/

^ great for window management

BetterTouchTool! You can turn any mouse into a Magic Mouse and map system or app-specific functions to buttons. Can’t live without it!

Standard Notes, and Bitwarden - you’ll thank me later

Rectangle, Brave browser (Chrome without the BS), NordPass (nice to have my passwords accessible on my windows machine too), VS Code, Spotify and VLC.

Over 20 years of using a mac and I’ve pretty much stopped installing anything that doesn’t have to do with work/play or whatever is needed for any hardware accessories. All the “productivity” tools they have out of the box are decent enough and seamlessly sync up with my iphone and any other apple devices I have. Get used to using Spotlight to open or find anything. Use Siri to do small tasks for you. I’d only look for alternatives if you’re locked into some process that needs something else or if you find you need something more. And if you don’t have any reason to be locked into using Spotify, ditch it and just use Apple music. Apple is known for their vendor lock in, but it’s really cause they give you a great experience right out of the box.

Depends what you are using it for

Istats menu and bartender 5

MiddleClick.. allows you to use a three-finger tap (or whatever) to simulate a mouse wheel click from Windows. Handy for opening links in new tabs.

I love using Parsec with my MacBook air. This way I don't sacrifice too much of the Windows capabilities when I am on Mac assuming I have the network. I can play games between my parents house and my house which is roughly 3 hours away with roughly 30ms delay.

Which model? If newest is it worth it?

dropzone, very handy for holding files temporarily

Ohhhh have fun :)

Great thread

Arc browser - steep learning curve but it’s fucking awesome Rectangle - windows like tab snapping Clocker - Open source menu bar clock that lets you see times zones in interest. Hidden menu bar - removes the menu bar items you don’t use Linear mouse - Windows like mouse feel

rectangle is the most usedul by far

Whatever apps you need to do what you planned to do with the computer.

So, Chrome

First you need to create a backup usb for if you have recovery issues. It’s not something people think about. Plus it could save you from an expensive laptop repair bill. Time Machine backup to an external drive so you have your important files safe.

Since your a dev, try Warp and Raycast

First, homebrew. I get flack from people saying they don’t trust other people’s repos, but lol IDGAF.

From there: Brave browser Microsoft Edge VS Code (NOT Codium) Flycut (clipboard manager) ITerm2 KeePassXC Lulu (firewall-ish) Obsidian Thunderbird Bash Python3.11/12 Splashtop Streamer (remote desktop with support for multiple monitors) BetterDisplay (simulated monitors for Splashtop)

There’s more, but it’s a work machine so some of it isn’t necessarily feasible for personal use.

CoconutBattery

Battery management app that tells you the health of your MacBook battery AND iOS devices (with cable for free, wirelessly costs a bit but not too much).

Arc is a great browser, it also has adblocker and blocks pop ups, downloaded like two weeks ago and now it’s my favorite browser. And when you’re watching a video or movie, it allows picture in picture

The same ones from the PC haha VLC VS code Spotify

Alfred is a must.

topnotch to hide that notch

snagit as an alternative to the built-in screen capture.