MacBook apps you can't live without!

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on /r/mac
MacOS Shell Mac Swift Objective-C

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  • Maccy

    Lightweight clipboard manager for macOS

    Maccy (free) - shows your clipboard history in the menu bar and with a handy keyboard shortcut brew install maccy

  • autocomplete

    IDE-style autocomplete for your existing terminal & shell

    Fig - VS Code-style autocomplete for your Terminal. FOR YOUR TERMINAL! I don't ever want to go back.

  • WorkOS

    The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

  • HomeBrew

    🍺 The missing package manager for macOS (or Linux)

    Homebrew - a tool for installing and managing free apps. Basically a much more expansive App Store but only for free apps.

  • stats

    macOS system monitor in your menu bar

    Stats - macOS system monitor in your menu bar

  • Transmission

    Official Transmission BitTorrent client repository

    Transmission - Free BitTorrent Client

  • MicSwitch

    Discontinued MicSwitch is a tool which allows you to mute/unmute your microphone using a predefined hotkey

    micSwitch - mute/unmute your system microphone

  • Rectangle

    Move and resize windows on macOS with keyboard shortcuts and snap areas

    Rectangle - Move and resize windows in macOS using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas

  • InfluxDB

    Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale. Get real-time insights from all types of time series data with InfluxDB. Ingest, query, and analyze billions of data points in real-time with unbounded cardinality.

  • MonitorControl

    🖥 Control your display's brightness & volume on your Mac as if it was a native Apple Display. Use Apple Keyboard keys or custom shortcuts. Shows the native macOS OSDs.

    MonitorControl - Control your external display's brightness & volume on your Mac

  • Scroll-Reverser

    Per-device scrolling prefs on macOS.

    Scroll Reverser - if you aren't using the magic mouse or just don't like the "natural scrolling" on your mouse, without changing trackpad scrolling

  • BackgroundMusic

    Background Music, a macOS audio utility: automatically pause your music, set individual apps' volumes and record system audio.

    Background Music - set individual apps' volumes

  • OpenEmu

    🕹 Retro video game emulation for macOS

    OpenEmu - open source video game emulator

  • AlDente-Charge-Limiter

    macOS menubar tool to set Charge Limits and prolong battery lifespan

    AlDente (freemium) - lets you set a charge limit on your MacBook brew install aldente

  • ImageOptim

    GUI image optimizer for Mac

    ImageOptim (free) - compresses images without loosing quality brew install imageoptim

  • aria2gui

    Discontinued Aria2GUI for macOS

    Aria2GUI (free) - GUI for aria2c that increases the speed of downloads by connecting to (slow) download servers with multiple connections brew install aria2gui

  • DisableMonitor

    Discontinued Easily disable or enable a monitor on your Mac.

    DisableMonitor (free) - lets you apply a custom resolution to your internal or external monitors (e.g. 1920x1080) Available on GitHub

  • hidden

    An ultra-light MacOS utility that helps hide menu bar icons

    Hidden Bar (free) - tool to hide menu bar items brew install hiddenbar, Mac App Store

  • Hot

    Hot is macOS menu bar application that displays the CPU speed limit due to thermal issues.

    Hot (free) - shows the temperature of the internal components of your Mac in the menu bar brew install hot

  • iina

    The modern video player for macOS.

    IINA (free) - amazing video player specifically for macOS brew install iina

  • Keka

    The macOS & iOS file archiver

    Keka (free) - tool that serves all your compressing and uncompressing needs brew install keka, Available on the Mac App Store (note: App Store version is a one time purchase)

  • PiPifier

    PiPifier is a native macOS 10.12 Safari extension that lets you use every HTML5 video in Picture in Picture mode

    Pipifier (free) - Safari extension that enables you use the native macOS picture in picture function on pretty much every site (like Netflix) Available for the Mac App Store

  • PlayCover

    Discontinued PlayCover is a project that allows you to sideload iOS apps on macOS (currently arm, Intel support will be tested) (by iVoider)

    PlayCover (free) - brings back the function of side-loading iOS apps on ARM Macs brew install playcover

  • powerlevel10k

    A Zsh theme

    Powerline 10k - A Zsh theme for OMZ.

  • ohmyzsh

    🙃 A delightful community-driven (with 2,300+ contributors) framework for managing your zsh configuration. Includes 300+ optional plugins (rails, git, macOS, hub, docker, homebrew, node, php, python, etc), 140+ themes to spice up your morning, and an auto-update tool so that makes it easy to keep up with the latest updates from the community.

    Oh My ZSH - A framework for Zsh. Makes the terminal awesome again.

  • Visual Studio Code

    Visual Studio Code

    Visual Studio Code - Code editor for just about anything (Go, React, Rust, Typescript, etc...)

  • yabai

    A tiling window manager for macOS based on binary space partitioning

    Yabai - a tiling window manager for macOS. Featurefull and fast.

  • sublime_text

    Issue tracker for Sublime Text

    Sublime Text - my current code editor

  • obsidian-releases

    Community plugins list, theme list, and releases of Obsidian.

    Obsidian - a note taking tool

  • SaaSHub

    SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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