Louis's Mac software recommendations

Updated: 17th October 2023

GUI Software

NamePricein use by meDescription
aldenteFree/
23.80€
A battery charge limiter (The service life of Li-Ion batteries is significantly extended by charging them to no more than 80% on a daily basis). https://apphousekitchen.com/ or “brew install --cask aldente”
amethystFreeTiling Window Manager for macOS - handy if you prefer this a tiling workflow, like I do. https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst or “brew install --cask amethyst”
AmphetamineFreePowerful keep-awake utility. Prevents the Mac from going into sleep mode. Useful if you want to keep an app visible (filming a clock for camera sync or watching movies with e.g. iPad apps) or if you just want the Mac to keep computing your R scripts when you are on your lunch break. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/amphetamine/id937984704 or “mas install 937984704”
Bartender 4Trial/
18€
Menu Bar Manager. The Bartender Bar is a way solution to not lose access to status bar icons that disappear behind the notch. See iBar for a less feature rich but free alternative. https://www.macbartender.com/ or “brew install bartender”
blackhole-2chFree❗ OBS has native support for sound recording on macOS 13 “Ventura” or later ❗ Enables sound recording from output devices with software like OBS. https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole or “brew install blackhole-2ch”
CelluloidFreeIINA alternative for linux https://github.com/celluloid-player/celluloid/
cyberduckFreeSFTP Client. https://cyberduck.io/ or “brew install --cask cyberduck”
disk-inventory-xFreeWinDirStat Style hard disk space usage analysis tool “brew install --cask disk-inventory-x”
DropoverFreeCreate a temporary floating and shareable space to collect files, links, clipboards, and more with a simple drag and drop. https://dropoverapp.com/
handbrakeFreeFree and open source video converter “brew install --cask handbrake”
hiddenbarFreeMenu Bar Manager. Hide elements from the menu bar - otherwise, some icons might disappear behind the notch. Who thought that this is a good behavior apple? “brew install --cask hiddenbar”
iBarFreeMenu Bar Manager. Provides the ability to add icons to an overflow menu that would otherwise be hidden by the notch. I can’t believe this is necessary when macOS should have handled this natively. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ibar-menubar-icon-control-tool/id6443843900 or “mas install 6443843900”
IINAFreeMPV video player front-end for macOS - MPV is in my opinion the best video player available. “brew install --cask IINA”; https://github.com/IINA/IINA
iterm2FreeI’m a Powerline10k user, and macOS’s default terminal can’t display my font/themes correctly. 😕 “brew install --cask iterm2”
kekaFreeFree tool for compressing files. “brew install --cask keka”
kritaFreeFree and open source image editor (Supports Photoshop files) “brew install --cask krita”
LaterFreeManually safe a current session of open programs and reopen them later. Useful for example if you need a clean desktop for a presentation. https://getlater.app/
maccyFreeClipboard history manager. Paste without formatting (WIN/LINUX SHIFT+CMD+V) is apparently missing in OSX. Maccy allows removing formatting from the clipboard and also provides a very handy history for it. “brew install --cask maccy”
macfuseFreeMount SSHFS, NTFS and EXT (Windows/Linux External hard disks and USB sticks) file systems on MAC. Requires the installation of kernel modules.
MacTeXFreeEasiest way to install a working LaTeX runtime on your Mac, since it comes with all necessary dependencies. Make sure to open the bundled “TeX Live Utility” before first use and every once in a while to “Update all packages” to their newest version. This may avoid issues with incompatibilities, bugs or other annoyances. https://www.tug.org/mactex/ or “brew install --cask mactex”
MagnetFreeMust-have for most people, adds window management similar to what you find windows (drag windows to screen edges to make the full screen or use the right/left side of your screen). Alternative: Rectangle ⬇️ https://magnet.crowdcafe.com/index.html or “mas install 441258766”
mpv.netFreeIINA alternative for windows https://github.com/mpvnet-player/mpv.net
obsFreeThe Go-To Tool for Screen Recordings
onlyofficeFreeGreat MS Office alternative
Orion BrowserFreeOrion Browser by Kagi- a Safari clone, that supports Firefox and Chrome Extensions!
RectangleFree/
9.99€
Must-have for most people, adds window management similar to what you find windows (drag widows to screen edges to make the full screen or use the right/left side of your screen). Easier to use alternative to amethyst, highly recommended. Another alternative: Magnet ⬆️ https://rectangleapp.com/
skimFreePDF Viewer with focus on annotating work
statsFreeDisplays system information in the top menu bar.
synergy29€/
59€
Software KVM tool to control multiple PCs with a single mouse/keyboard combination. https://symless.com/synergy / Like Universal Control, but works with Windows/Linux too
tigervnc-viewerFreeVNC Remote desktop tool
VeljaFreeBy service browser/app selector. For example: open YouTube links in Firefox, Netflix in Safari, and any other link in something else; and more.
visual-studio-codeFreeVery good text and code editor.
zoteroFreeGreat citation tool

Recommended resource for more:

CLI Software

NamePricein use by meDescription
aria2FreeVery powerful download manager
brewFreePackage manager for MAC. You don’t have to search the web for Software anymore!!! Just type e.g. “brew install firefox” into your terminal, and you are ready to go! Also works with almost every recommended software in this document. Highly recommended! See https://brew.sh/
btopFreeA powerful and good-looking activity monitor for use in the terminal
dockerFreeRunning Linux Docker container under in Mac
ffmpegFreeFFmpeg is a free and open source software for processing video, audio and other multimedia files and streams.
ImageMagickFreeVery powerful tool for converting files (e.g. “convert image.png image.jpg” or mp4, PDF, mp3, etc.)
Mac App Store CLIFreeA simple command line interface for the Mac App Store. Designed for scripting and automation. https://github.com/mas-cli/mas or “brew install mas”
neofetchFreeDisplay information about your system in a fancy way within your terminal
pvFreeMeasure terminal “pipe” speeds
scrcpyFreeView and remotely control Android devices on Mac
speedtest-cliFreeTest internet speed
treeFreeDisplay directory structures in the terminal

Quick look extensions

NamePricein use by meDescription
QLMarkdownFreeRenders Markdown files - https://github.com/sbarex/QLMarkdown
QLVideoFreePreviews more video types - https://github.com/Marginal/QLVideo
SourceCodeSyntaxHighlightingFreeColors source code - https://github.com/sbarex/SourceCodeSyntaxHighlight

Recommended resource for more:

Browser extensions (Firefox/Chrome/Orion Browser)

NamePricein use by meDescription
ClearURLsFreeRemoves trackers from URLs, hence makes them shorter and easier to share.
DecentraleyesFreeIntelligent local (offline) caching of shared website content to reduce tracking and speed up website loading times.
SponsorBlock for YouTubeFreeAutomatically skips intros and things.
uBlock OriginFreeTHE one and only best ad blocker, please don’t use anything else. (It’s important to note that not all ads are malicious. If you want to ensure that the websites you like continue to exist, consider adding them to your ad-blocker’s whitelist.)
uMatrixFreeAdvanced script and content blocker, for those for whom uBlock Origin is not enough. Warning: Can be confusing to new users!

Visual Studio Code extensions

NamePricein use by meDescription
Code Spell CheckerFreeUseful especially if you use VS Code for latex and other documents.
Format in context menusFreeIf you want to batch process multiple files to run a formatter.
GitLensFreeThe one best UI-Tool for git.
LaTeX WorkshopFreeVisual Studio Code extension for creating and editing latex documents. In my opinion, the best way to use latex.
LTeXFreeVery highly recommended spellchecker that is more specific for Latex, Markdown and others. It also catches grammar and other high level mistakes
PlatformIO IDEFreeMakes Visual Studio Code one of the best development environments for any microcontroller I’ve encountered so far.
Rainbow CSVFreeHandy if you want to edit CSV files. It can align columns, search with SQL queries and color individual columns to better distinguish them.
Remote (- SSH)FreeAllows you to work on projects on other computers, environments, or in containers from your personal machine remotely via SSH.
Sort linesFreeVery useful for Markdown tables like this one. In fact, I used it to sort all the tables in this document!
todo TreeFreeLeave To do tags in code comments and come back to them later.
Trailing SpacesFreeI personally hate it when files have trailing spaces. At worst, they can cause problems and at best they are just ugly. Use this to keep your files clean.
vscode-mwelFreeThis extension adds language support for mWorks Experiment Language (MWEL) to Visual Studio Code. It’s maintained by me 😃

Worth mentioning

NamePricein use by meDescription
BitwardenFreeA password manager I use. I highly recommend using a password manager in general! However, there are some security implications to storing all your passwords in one place. I would like you to do your own research, therefore this is not a recommendation for Bitwarden!
VentoyFreeCreates USB sticks from which you can boot any ISO you have previously copied to it (very handy if you regularly install different operating systems)