Some apps to make macOS less painful
2024-03-30
I hate to admit it, but Apple pretty much won me over with the excellent M series MacBook Pros into not only considering them, but spending the time to research the most sensible configuration and bending my mind into thinking such a machine is worth the clearly outrageous price it costs. Every operating system I have used so far (including all the Linux distribution I tried) is only mediocre out of the box however without some handy tools and that's exactly what we are looking at in this article. I don't want to waste anymore of your time, so let's just start with the list...
- Package manager: Homebrew
- Terminal replacement: iTerm2
- Quit apps when closing windows: RedQuits OR Swift Quit
- Zoom apps when maximizing windows: GreenOrbmax OR Right Zoom for Mac
- Window snapping: Rectangle
- Tiling window manager: Amethyst OR yabai with skhd and Yabai Indicator
- Better ALT+TAB: AltTab
- Save workspace: Later
- Paste without formatting: Pure Paste
- Clipboard manager: Maccy
- Dock position based on monitor config: HiDock
- External monitor brightness control: MonitorControl
- Display configuration overrides: BetterDisplay
- Better spotlight: Alfred OR LaunchBar OR Raycast
- Command pallet everywhere: Paletro OR Shortcat
- Virtual machines: UTM
- Application firewall: Little Snitch OR Radio Silence
- Distraction blocker: one sec
- Extra modifier key: Hyperkey
- Mouse/touchpad customization: LinearMouse
- Fancy calculator: Numi
Hopefully some of these are new and as helpful to you as they are for me. With that said, feel free to share your own recommendations in the comments down below and have a lovely day...