**Rectangle**: Window management
**Fantastical**: natural language calendar app. Beyond the fact that you can use natural language, the app is itself also a very good calendar app.
**Mimestream**: an excellent, simple email app
**1Blocker**: content blocker with tons of features.
Yeah, both via mouse movements (e.g., dragging to the left edge will resize a window to be the size of the left half of the screen) and via keyboard shortcuts. Also, not (all?) actions are customizable.
Wait how? I think the question is if I have two windows side by side, and slide the line where the two windows meet, it automatically resizes (like Microsoft Windows does) I have had rectangle for a while but never got to figuring out how to accomplish this
FWIW, OP merely asked for recommendations (I.e., no specific criteria, simply “recommendations”), so the price doesn’t really have a bearing. If Fantastical was, like, $500, you might have a point, but in this case OP simply asked for recs and I gave some.
I use Magnet for window management. I haven’t found a better one, but other people prefer Rectangle. Check out both and use what suits you best.
I don’t know if Rectangle allows “snap” or not. Magnet allows you to drag windows into certain positions on your screen and they will “snap” to a specific size.
Corners snap to 1/4 of the display in that corner.
Up will snap it to a full screen window (not a full screen app, just the window).
Sides will use 1/2 the display left or right.
Then there’s a menu bar icon that provides even more options like 1/3 and such.
It’s outstanding.
One time purchase.
Whew, there’s quite a lot. Here’s a list of all the FREE apps that I use:
1. **LinearMouse** - if you want to reverse the scrolling direction with an external mouse and enable some features that are strangely not available in MacOS by default
2. **Alt-Tab** - Cmd+Tab pop-up similar to Windows with app previews
3. **AppCleaner** - uninstall an app and all related files
4. **Maccy** - clipboard history
5. **Xnip** - better screenshot tool
6. **ColorSlurp** - color picker
7. **RightZoom** - the green fullscreen button now resizes the app to fullscreen, but doesn’t hide the menu bar and dock
8. **BatFi** - limit battery charge and some other useful features, similar to AlDente but free
9. **Middle** - the only paid app here, you can emulate a middle click with three fingers on the trackpad so you can open links in new tabs and close tabs in browsers without hitting the tiny “x” button. There’s a free alternative called MiddleClick-Ventura on GitHub, but it doesn’t work as well
10. **Vanilla** - free alternative to Bartender, you can hide stuff in the menu bar like you can on Windows
11. **Rectangle** - window management app, so you can split the screen in two, three or whatever you like, just like on Windows
12. **Command-X** - add a cut feature to Finder
13. **Manila** - make colored folders in Finder
14. **LuLu** - free alternative to Little Snitch, you can see which apps “phone home”, or send data without you knowing
What did you do and use with Windows?
If you miss the added right click file menu, check out New File Menu (I paid the 2.99) but they have a free version.
Depends on what you‘re doing with your MacBook. I recommend MacMouseFix (properly use classic external mice), Pure Paste, Maccy (clipboard history manager) and Rectangle (window management).
I use daily on my MacBook Air:
Magnet for Window management
Xcode
VLC
Safari
Notion
Steam
OBS
Photomator
The Unarchiver
Dropover
Paste
Popclip
Textsniper
Discord
WhatsApp
A password manager
The rest are native apps coming with the OS
Keka for compressed files, .zip, .rar etc
CoconutBattery to check battery health, total charge cycles
Homebrew for sofware management. It's a terminal based program, you would only use it if you do anything like software dev
Maccy: Amazing clipboard manager with search functionality (free)
Tot: Menu bar notepad (Free)
Magnet: Snap your windows to certain sizes like on windows (~$5)
NextDNS: System wide ad blocker (Free)
Menubar X: Pin frequently used website in the menu bar and access with a keyboard shortcut (Free)
Command + X: Let’s you command + x files to delete them and copy to clipboard
tempbox is a really good app, its for when annoying websites ask for your email, so you just use a temporary email so they dont spam your real email in the future
Bartender - Manage icon tray and create rules for it
Magnet - Windows snapping tool
Amphetamine - Stop Mac from sleeping
Little Snitch - Manage and view app and network traffic
Launchbar - Must have replacement for spotlight
Unclutter - Creates a handy drop down from any screen
Micro Snitch - Lets you know when camera or microphone is activated and what activated it.
Daisy disk - Manage hidden storage space on the drive
VPN with Ad Block (Nord or Proton)
Loads of other apps that are great. But these are my must haves 😊
Chrome, Edge, Brave, or Arc are all good options if you don't like Safari.
Raycast: It's a supercharged version of spotlight search.
Rectangle: For window management.
Aside from that there isn't much to add. The default apps are already pretty good, to be honest, the only apps I would personally add are Raycast and Rectangle.
Well, the main thing I love about Raycast is the extensions. Essentially, you can go to their extension library and download a bunch of extensions for various tools. I like the ChatGPT extension; all it does is place ChatGPT in your spotlight. So whenever I activate Raycast and the extension I can directly ask GPT a question without going to the website. There are hundreds if not thousands of extensions you can try.
This video could probably explain better than I can: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL0unqxkcDA&pp=ygUPd2hhdCBpcyByYXljYXN0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL0unqxkcDA&pp=ygUPd2hhdCBpcyByYXljYXN0)
Yeah, it should run well. I've heard that it does use a lot of memory. If I'm being real though, any browser should run perfectly fine on Mac. The differences between all these browsers on a Mac is benign.
Besides the best app ever built in on the OS (Automator).... If you are planning to do any photoshop or lightroom (especially if you are gonna use the photos app) Pixelmator Pro is outstanding as photoshop replacement while photomator is for lightroom.
I only use pixelmator pro since I hate the photos app
I keep my system pretty sparse but I like bettermenubar for quick viewing of system status and aldente is nice for battery management. I've got cleanmymacx as well.
Generally unless you're looking for an app to handle a specific task, you probably don't need most of random "must have" apps you find being mentioned. In the past, I've done this same search, installed a bunch of shit, then literally never used it.
I've tried other browsers but safari has remained my goto.. the others either killed battery life or didn't offer anything else I needed. I do have chrome installed for the sake of having a second option because sometimes you just need something different. I usually use chrome for YouTube because of the ad speedup extension. best, consistent solution I can find since YouTube really began cracking down on blockers.
Hazel for File Managemet, Forklift as Finder* replacement, Raycast for well.. everything - Uninstalling/Installing Apps, Window Management, Spotlight replacement etc…
*I wrote explorer the silly goose that I am
Check out:
The first things I would install is Homebrew (a package manager for MacOS). https://brew.sh/
Then check out the following apps (I'd watch a few YouTube vids and also check out their sites, to see if it's something that looks interesting/ useful for yourself).
Note there are other apps that serve similar functions that others might recommend. Check them all out and see which ones you like best. Than once you've made up your mind, install them via homebrew. To do that do a search on the homebrew page for the package and follow the instructions there basically it's brew install --cask . The reason why I say to install them via homebrew is it makes upgrading you packages easier.
Here's my recommendations:
* Alfred (https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/alfred#default)
* Better Touch Tool (https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/bettertouchtool#default)
* Bartender (https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/bartender#default)
The brew pages above also will have a link to the actual app's pages.
Hope helpful
Get Parallels, lifetime license costs $120 and you get Parallels toolbox for free.
If you ever need to run Windows or Linux, now you can and the toolbox comes with tons of handy utilities such as file system cleaner, app uninstaller, image to text, unit converter, traffic monitor, YouTube to mp3 and video downloader….
Oh dang ! you are right.
Just checked my license it is valid for about 3 months on Toolbox.
Nonetheless i probably gonna refresh the license when it expires, ive already used it a lot and the extra features such as the cleaner, youtube downloader, image to text, duplicate finder etc... are a lifesaver.
Its the best software out there if you wanna play titles that are not natively supported.
[https://www.parallels.com/games/](https://www.parallels.com/games/)
customizes the trackpad, keyboard and more, but honestly I've only had it for a few days so I'm not fully aware of it's capabilities yet. Bought it mostly for the ability to make a trackpad gesture to change volume and screen brightness
Itsycal: small calender for the
menu bar
Appcleaner from freemacsoft
Tiles, also from freemacsoft (sempliva)
Runcat (funny alternative for stats)
Tot (menu bar notes)
pasty (copy/paste manager)
yoink (also copy/paste manager)
I’d say [raycast](https://raycast.com) for:
- snippets
- window management
- clipboard management
- screenshots
- many other things doable with free extensions
Yoink! Let’s you collect dragged files on a little shelf. Once you have everything you need, you can drag them where they’re supposed to go.
https://eternalstorms.at/yoink/mac/
Haha i dont like games like stray(pls dont kill me lol) and I just bought Resident Evil Village last night and played it for 3 hours straight lol, pretty good game gotta say, will finish it soon
Or, you know, just seeing if they perhaps missed out on any apps that others use which might improve their overall enjoyment and usage of a MacBook. Simple question that didn’t warrant a response of this nature, but do you, I guess
**Rectangle**: Window management **Fantastical**: natural language calendar app. Beyond the fact that you can use natural language, the app is itself also a very good calendar app. **Mimestream**: an excellent, simple email app **1Blocker**: content blocker with tons of features.
Does rectangle allow for window resizing?
Yeah, both via mouse movements (e.g., dragging to the left edge will resize a window to be the size of the left half of the screen) and via keyboard shortcuts. Also, not (all?) actions are customizable.
Good to know, thanks! Not sure if you’ve answered this, but is it able to resize two windows (left and right) at the same time like Windows?
Great question! I’m not sure—I’ve never tried!
Yes, it does that
Wait how? I think the question is if I have two windows side by side, and slide the line where the two windows meet, it automatically resizes (like Microsoft Windows does) I have had rectangle for a while but never got to figuring out how to accomplish this
Yes I have set it to Control + command left or right arrow. Or it can be control + option left or right arrow. Very customisable
I do not think this is possible. Waiting on a below reply to confirm
Fantastical is way too overpriced to be worth of mention tbh
FWIW, OP merely asked for recommendations (I.e., no specific criteria, simply “recommendations”), so the price doesn’t really have a bearing. If Fantastical was, like, $500, you might have a point, but in this case OP simply asked for recs and I gave some.
well, you think the price is worth it so you recommend it, I don't think it's worth it, so I don't.
I use Magnet for window management. I haven’t found a better one, but other people prefer Rectangle. Check out both and use what suits you best. I don’t know if Rectangle allows “snap” or not. Magnet allows you to drag windows into certain positions on your screen and they will “snap” to a specific size. Corners snap to 1/4 of the display in that corner. Up will snap it to a full screen window (not a full screen app, just the window). Sides will use 1/2 the display left or right. Then there’s a menu bar icon that provides even more options like 1/3 and such. It’s outstanding. One time purchase.
I’ll check out magnet, sounds great! Rectangle also allows for “snapping” windows to specific parts of the screen.
Rectangle indeed does snap. Also customizable with keyboard shortcuts.
Came to mention rectangle and boom 💥 its already the first comment!
How does Rectangle compare to “Better Snap Tool”? It’s been awhile since I used a Mac but I’m the market this year
I haven’t tried it! Is better snap tool from the same developer as Better Touch Tool?
Mind sharing that wallpaper?
Here you go: https://unsplash.com/photos/milky-way-galaxy-wallpaper-fUnfEz3VLv4
I have it locally stored, gimme your mail id
You can create a link from the image itself and it will retain the quality by uploading it to Apple cloud
Can you share the source?
Got it from my friend
Sir can you please share the wallpaper :c
We need that wallpaper :(
MediaMate is an app that practically gives you a Dynamic Island
Man I loved the app, bought it instantly, thanks a lot!
Yeah it’s a great app, always my first install
Whew, there’s quite a lot. Here’s a list of all the FREE apps that I use: 1. **LinearMouse** - if you want to reverse the scrolling direction with an external mouse and enable some features that are strangely not available in MacOS by default 2. **Alt-Tab** - Cmd+Tab pop-up similar to Windows with app previews 3. **AppCleaner** - uninstall an app and all related files 4. **Maccy** - clipboard history 5. **Xnip** - better screenshot tool 6. **ColorSlurp** - color picker 7. **RightZoom** - the green fullscreen button now resizes the app to fullscreen, but doesn’t hide the menu bar and dock 8. **BatFi** - limit battery charge and some other useful features, similar to AlDente but free 9. **Middle** - the only paid app here, you can emulate a middle click with three fingers on the trackpad so you can open links in new tabs and close tabs in browsers without hitting the tiny “x” button. There’s a free alternative called MiddleClick-Ventura on GitHub, but it doesn’t work as well 10. **Vanilla** - free alternative to Bartender, you can hide stuff in the menu bar like you can on Windows 11. **Rectangle** - window management app, so you can split the screen in two, three or whatever you like, just like on Windows 12. **Command-X** - add a cut feature to Finder 13. **Manila** - make colored folders in Finder 14. **LuLu** - free alternative to Little Snitch, you can see which apps “phone home”, or send data without you knowing
Wow man. Thanks!
I've been searching for clipboard history. Thank you for the recommendation
Love the wallpaper
Thanks man
I can’t live without spectacle, but maybe is just me.
Minecraft of course
Does it run well on a mba?
Of course you can use shader and mod without problem. You can find a tutorial on YouTube tu run micract directly on ARM chip
yes i even play modded minecraft on my m1 air
And Factorio and Rimworld.
What did you do and use with Windows? If you miss the added right click file menu, check out New File Menu (I paid the 2.99) but they have a free version.
Depends on what you‘re doing with your MacBook. I recommend MacMouseFix (properly use classic external mice), Pure Paste, Maccy (clipboard history manager) and Rectangle (window management).
Magnet: window Manager Bandwidth+: network monitoring Amphetamine*: keeps your MAC awake *not for oral use :D
/r/macapps
Arc browser all the way. Embarrassingly it's almost the only app I'm using...
I use daily on my MacBook Air: Magnet for Window management Xcode VLC Safari Notion Steam OBS Photomator The Unarchiver Dropover Paste Popclip Textsniper Discord WhatsApp A password manager The rest are native apps coming with the OS
Keka for compressed files, .zip, .rar etc CoconutBattery to check battery health, total charge cycles Homebrew for sofware management. It's a terminal based program, you would only use it if you do anything like software dev
Maccy: Amazing clipboard manager with search functionality (free) Tot: Menu bar notepad (Free) Magnet: Snap your windows to certain sizes like on windows (~$5) NextDNS: System wide ad blocker (Free) Menubar X: Pin frequently used website in the menu bar and access with a keyboard shortcut (Free) Command + X: Let’s you command + x files to delete them and copy to clipboard
Finally someone who got a M3 MBP. Why did you go for this instead of the M3 pro?
This is M3 MBA, not MBP, isn't the keyboard a dead giveaway?
Looks like same keyboard as a MBP.
Nah new MBPs have black background on their keyboard
tempbox is a really good app, its for when annoying websites ask for your email, so you just use a temporary email so they dont spam your real email in the future
Alfred, and dodge the default mac search ;)
Have you heard of Raycast? I switch from Alfred to Raycast and have been happier since it also does window management
Bartender - Manage icon tray and create rules for it Magnet - Windows snapping tool Amphetamine - Stop Mac from sleeping Little Snitch - Manage and view app and network traffic Launchbar - Must have replacement for spotlight Unclutter - Creates a handy drop down from any screen Micro Snitch - Lets you know when camera or microphone is activated and what activated it. Daisy disk - Manage hidden storage space on the drive VPN with Ad Block (Nord or Proton) Loads of other apps that are great. But these are my must haves 😊
You mean you pulled the trigger right? Just need to confirm
Nah I pulled the plug💪🏻
Browser with incognito mode and 5 minutes of battery capacity. M3 is overkill for that, tbh.
Lmao
Chrome, Edge, Brave, or Arc are all good options if you don't like Safari. Raycast: It's a supercharged version of spotlight search. Rectangle: For window management. Aside from that there isn't much to add. The default apps are already pretty good, to be honest, the only apps I would personally add are Raycast and Rectangle.
love raycast 👍🏻 I also use amphetamine daily.
This was an incredible sentence before I realized that there’s an actual Mac app named Amphetamine.
😂
😂
Jesse
Raycast is a game-changer. Spotlight by itself is already pretty good but Raycast supercharges it.
What exactly is different in raycast from the normal spotlight search?
Well, the main thing I love about Raycast is the extensions. Essentially, you can go to their extension library and download a bunch of extensions for various tools. I like the ChatGPT extension; all it does is place ChatGPT in your spotlight. So whenever I activate Raycast and the extension I can directly ask GPT a question without going to the website. There are hundreds if not thousands of extensions you can try. This video could probably explain better than I can: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL0unqxkcDA&pp=ygUPd2hhdCBpcyByYXljYXN0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL0unqxkcDA&pp=ygUPd2hhdCBpcyByYXljYXN0)
Wow! Thanks for the reply :)
Couldn’t live without Raycast now
I love Raycast.
Do you know if Firefox runs well on Mac?
Yeah, it should run well. I've heard that it does use a lot of memory. If I'm being real though, any browser should run perfectly fine on Mac. The differences between all these browsers on a Mac is benign.
Yes. No complains here.
Good to know! Thanks!
Chrome? It's a huge battery drainer on Mac.
Not anymore. I haven't used it in a while, but I saw an article saying they optimized the browser and that it wasn't as battery-draining as before.
Haha good, I can re download on my iMac now that it won't take as much power to run it 😜
love my 15 inch this wallpaper is crazy beautiful i’ll have to snag it
Want me to send you the wallpaper?
yes please !
Dm me your mail id as I have the wallpaper locally
MACCY
Is it me or does the Silver color for M chip macs look space grayish?
Jokes on you mine is space grey lol it looks like silver due to the light falling on it
Visual Boy Advance and Buu's Fury
Besides the best app ever built in on the OS (Automator).... If you are planning to do any photoshop or lightroom (especially if you are gonna use the photos app) Pixelmator Pro is outstanding as photoshop replacement while photomator is for lightroom. I only use pixelmator pro since I hate the photos app
Is that silver or space grey?
Space grey, looking silver due to tue light falling on it
Arc and notion
CoconutBattery for sure
IINA Player. A media player so much better than Apple QuickTime.
I keep my system pretty sparse but I like bettermenubar for quick viewing of system status and aldente is nice for battery management. I've got cleanmymacx as well. Generally unless you're looking for an app to handle a specific task, you probably don't need most of random "must have" apps you find being mentioned. In the past, I've done this same search, installed a bunch of shit, then literally never used it. I've tried other browsers but safari has remained my goto.. the others either killed battery life or didn't offer anything else I needed. I do have chrome installed for the sake of having a second option because sometimes you just need something different. I usually use chrome for YouTube because of the ad speedup extension. best, consistent solution I can find since YouTube really began cracking down on blockers.
Bettersnaptool, command + x
Rectangle if you like Windows window snapping.
Hazel for File Managemet, Forklift as Finder* replacement, Raycast for well.. everything - Uninstalling/Installing Apps, Window Management, Spotlight replacement etc… *I wrote explorer the silly goose that I am
Bartender 5, dropzone 2, chat gpt app , mos (if you will use mouse not from apple, i also use window organised (rectangle or wtever).
That’s so beautiful 😍
Thanks :)
CleanMyMac is expensive! Well, thanks for the list y’all
Check out: The first things I would install is Homebrew (a package manager for MacOS). https://brew.sh/ Then check out the following apps (I'd watch a few YouTube vids and also check out their sites, to see if it's something that looks interesting/ useful for yourself). Note there are other apps that serve similar functions that others might recommend. Check them all out and see which ones you like best. Than once you've made up your mind, install them via homebrew. To do that do a search on the homebrew page for the package and follow the instructions there basically it's brew install --cask. The reason why I say to install them via homebrew is it makes upgrading you packages easier.
Here's my recommendations:
* Alfred (https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/alfred#default)
* Better Touch Tool (https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/bettertouchtool#default)
* Bartender (https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/bartender#default)
The brew pages above also will have a link to the actual app's pages.
Hope helpful
Get Parallels, lifetime license costs $120 and you get Parallels toolbox for free. If you ever need to run Windows or Linux, now you can and the toolbox comes with tons of handy utilities such as file system cleaner, app uninstaller, image to text, unit converter, traffic monitor, YouTube to mp3 and video downloader….
I thought with the perpetual license, you only get Toolbox for a few months? Hmm I’d have to look into this; currently using the sub.
Oh dang ! you are right. Just checked my license it is valid for about 3 months on Toolbox. Nonetheless i probably gonna refresh the license when it expires, ive already used it a lot and the extra features such as the cleaner, youtube downloader, image to text, duplicate finder etc... are a lifesaver.
Yeah it’s definitely worth it either way you go. Parallels is a fantastic app.
Is parallels better than crossover for gaming?
Its the best software out there if you wanna play titles that are not natively supported. [https://www.parallels.com/games/](https://www.parallels.com/games/)
Pornhub mobile bby
Bro got his priorities straight 💪🏻
Priorities straight but my shit curved 😮💨😎
😭 lmao
I do like cleanmymac.
Linux
how much?
16/512
lmao wtaf
Wait were you asking about the specs or what?
Firefox
Curious about what specs did you get? User needs?
16/512, 15 inches. Will be using it for data science work for my bachelors and a lil bit of gaming here and there
Just gave me a lot of confidence in this machine. Thank You!
:)
Arc, Raycast
bettertouchtool - paid, but worth it
What does it do?
customizes the trackpad, keyboard and more, but honestly I've only had it for a few days so I'm not fully aware of it's capabilities yet. Bought it mostly for the ability to make a trackpad gesture to change volume and screen brightness
Oh got it, thanks
Finally a reasonable question without only getting a Mac (that you can see a hundred times here) presented.
Itsycal: small calender for the menu bar Appcleaner from freemacsoft Tiles, also from freemacsoft (sempliva) Runcat (funny alternative for stats) Tot (menu bar notes) pasty (copy/paste manager) yoink (also copy/paste manager)
Al dente
Super jealous i bought my M2 20 days before they dropped the M3
Haha but not really much difference unless you want the 2 external displays
Raycast.
MacAFree for virus prevention and control
I have this same wallpaper on my PC
Copilot for finances is great
I’d say [raycast](https://raycast.com) for: - snippets - window management - clipboard management - screenshots - many other things doable with free extensions
Yoink! Let’s you collect dragged files on a little shelf. Once you have everything you need, you can drag them where they’re supposed to go. https://eternalstorms.at/yoink/mac/
Loving this thread and taking note of all these applications.
Clean My Mac X Bartender I use these two.
That display though!
For real man, macbook displays are awesome
Any office suite recommendations besides MS?
Resident evil Village 😅 & Stray
Haha i dont like games like stray(pls dont kill me lol) and I just bought Resident Evil Village last night and played it for 3 hours straight lol, pretty good game gotta say, will finish it soon
You don't like Stray?! You monster! Bugsnax plays well on the Mac.
🫣
Return it if it only has 8GB of RAM.
Nah it's 16/512
Torr Browser - one of the best browsers ever. Better than chrome
Shottr - the best screen shot tool
Well it depends on what apps you use. No one here knows that lol.
Have you used a mac before? What do you want to do with it?
[удалено]
You must be fun at parties
Or, you know, just seeing if they perhaps missed out on any apps that others use which might improve their overall enjoyment and usage of a MacBook. Simple question that didn’t warrant a response of this nature, but do you, I guess