if I Could Only Install 20 Mac Applications
I’m rather proud of having more than 400 apps installed on my Mac. According to Lingon X, I have 102 apps either as login items or running in the background as helper apps. I have a hobby blog, AppAddict where I write an app review every day, always something I have downloaded, installed and used on my personal Mac. I love my Setapp subscription because it gives me an evergrowing library of high quality apps to try out for the same monthly price. But if all this goodness evaporated suddenly and i was forced to run vanilla Mac OS plus twenty apps to get my work done, which out of all the ones that own would I choose? Answering this requires some tough choices. may of these apps I have been using for more than a decade, although a few have been adopted in the past year.
- Obsidian - an extensible note taking app
- Clean Shot X - the best screen shot utility
- Raycast - an app launcher that handles much more
- Keyboard Maestro - the ultimate Mac automation tool
- Microsoft Edge - my choice for web browsing for reasons
- PopClip - a text selection utility
- TextExpander - a snippets app
- Drafts - a text automation app
- Day One - the preeminent journaling app for macOS
- Default Folder X - an enhancement for open and save dialog boxes
- Hazel - a Mac automation tool for file management
- DropZone 4- a file shelf utility
- Toyviewer - a Preview replacement for images with editing capabilities
- PathFinder - a replacement for Finder (although I might opt for Qspace)
- ScrapPaper - a menu bar utility for floating notes
- BarTender - I didn’t buy into the hysteria, I just set up some Little Snitch rules
- Better Touch Tool - multi-purpose automation app
- Find Any File - a search utility
- Things 3- a task manager
- Outlook - for better or worse, it’s the email app I use to get work done (note to self: do better)
goofpunk @amerpie I use BBEdit for evvvvverything. Any code I write and the majority of other text (including all my blog posts) go through BBEdit. It’s probably my favorite app on the Mac
goofpunk @amerpie I think part of it is apps that do the same thing: I use Alfred instead of Raycast or Keyboard Maestro, BBEdit and Tot instead of Drafts, and Ice instead of Bartender. I’ll start working on my list!
Lou Plummer 💖 @goofpunk I've only been on Raycast since November of 2023. I used Launchbar for 17 years. I do own and use BBEdit but mostly for its multifile search and replace.
goofpunk @amerpie Interesting list! I’m also a hardcore Mac person, but it looks like our lists have zero overlap
Lou Plummer 💖 @goofpunk What!! How can that be? I can't imagine using my Mac without some of those. Let's see your list.