Ask HN: Just ordered my first Mac- what apps should I know about?

[olegious]

Getting my new Macbook Air on Wednesday. I'll be using it for RoR and front end coding (not a dev but trying to move away from/add to the "Product Guy" label), VM (will run Ubuntu in a VM).

So far these are the apps I know about:

-Adium to combine all my chat accounts

-Growl for notifications

-iTerm2 seems to be an interesting terminal emulator

-Any Notepad++ equivalents on OSx? (I'll end up using Vim and some Notepad++ equivalent)

-Recommended email clients?

-Recommended media players? (I use VLC on Windows)

-Recommended calendar apps to sync with Google and Exchange calendars?

-CSS editors?

-Anything else that a Mac newbie should be told about?

Thanks.

[radq]

Have you seen these threads?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2147642

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2161855

I found them pretty useful -- have a look!

Also have a look at this one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3407705

[mtrn]

Quicksilver http://qsapp.com/ - I never opened an application from Finder or Dock again.

From their site:

Quicksilver is a launcher utility app for Mac OS X which gives you the ability to perform common, every-day tasks rapidly and without thought. An introduction to Quicksilver's abilities include:

* Accessing applications, documents, contacts, music and much, much more.

* Browsing your Mac's filesystem elegantly using keywords and 'fuzzy' matching.

* Managing content through drag and drop, or grabbing selected content directly.

* Interacting with installed applications through plugins.

[mhenr18]

I thought Quicksilver was great until I realised Spotlight does the job just as well for app launching.

[RodgerTheGreat]

Colloquy[1] is a fantastic IRC client. TextWrangler[2] is one of my favorite text editors. If you're familiar with Linux, you'll want a package manager- popular options are MacPorts[3] or Fink[4]. As far as media players, VLC[5] has a very nice OSX port.

[1] http://colloquy.info/ [2] http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/ [3] http://www.macports.org/ [4] http://www.finkproject.org/ [5] http://www.videolan.org/

[andybak]

re: package managers.

Check our Homebrew: http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ and read a few articles about the pros and cons of homebrew vs Macports. It's a sticky topic.

[gks]

Linkinus is a pretty nice IRC client as well. I believe I got it on sale on the App Store for like $5. I'm sure it's more now though.

I definitely suggest HomeBrew over MacPorts and Fink. I've had much better luck with it.

TextWrangler is a great free editor. I use Sublime Text 2 for anything that I may need some standard editing. For more complex stuff or if I'm doing more than opening a single file, I prefer MacVim.

[dewitt]

The first things I install on any Mac (and goodness knows there have been lot of them):

  - Google Chrome (http://chrome.google.com)
  - iTerm2 (http://www.iterm2.com/)
  - Xcode (http://developer.apple.com/xcode/)
  - Homebrew (http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew)
    - For emacs-snapshot, zsh, git, gnupg, etc.
  - Google Drive (https://drive.google.com)
  - Flux (http://stereopsis.com/flux/)
  - TextMate (http://macromates.com/)
  - VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc)
  - Transmission (http://www.transmissionbt.com/)

Then, things like the Sonos controller, the Rdio and Spotify apps, Adobe Lightroom 4, Photoshop, etc.

But the above are the ones that seem to make it onto every new machine in the first day or two.

Enjoy!

[mtrn]

As a developer I very happy, that http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ exists. It's a package manager (#packages as of today: 2024), like apt or yum - with a very nice command line interface and a great community.

> Homebrew is the easiest and most flexible way to install the UNIX tools Apple didn't include with OS X.

[jherdman]

If you don't like Quicksilver, Alfred is really good too (http://www.alfredapp.com/).

Sublime Text 2 is pretty great (http://www.sublimetext.com/2).

[spicyj]

Seconding Alfred.

ST2, TextMate, and MacVim are all good – I personally prefer MacVim.

[gks]

I say go for Launchbar. The clipboard history is pretty rockin in my opinion.

[CJefferson]

Try standard terminal, I prefer it to item 2.

Home brew or mac ports help install unixy tools. Work on the assumption that whichever you install, at least once a year you will have to completely remove it and reinstall it, as sometimes they get in a mess.

Apple mail is OK, I prefer thunderbird, but it isn't very Macy.

VLC tends to play whatever you chuck at it.

General note - HFS tends to get unhappy (performance-wise) if your drive gets more than about 85% full.

When I first got a mac I was tempted to install lots of hacks to standard apps and the OS. These seem much less popular nowadays, but still try to resist any, at least for a while. Mac OS X is very hard to debug if it starts to misbehave.

finally, never install the .0 version of any new OS :)

[shaufler]

Sublime Text 2 (http://www.sublimetext.com/) and MacVim (http://code.google.com/p/macvim/) are my preferred text editors.

Sparrow (http://sparrowmailapp.com/) is my favorite email client.

I can't live without a window resizer on OS X. Use SizeUp (http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/) for easy window maximizing, half splits, and quadrant resizing.

[phr3aked0ut]

– MPlayerX (http://mplayerx.org/) Great standalone video player

- Perian (http://perian.org) Perian lets quicktime run almost any video format. Unfortunately it's not under active development. Still useful to have installed regardless.

– Google Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome) Don't install Flash unless you have to. Chrome has it built in. I use Safari for most of my browsing and switch to Chrome when I want to use flash.

– If you aren't going to install Flash, then install YouTube5 (http://www.verticalforest.com/youtube5-extension/) It's a Safari extension that lets you watch YouTube videos natively without Flash.

- Day-O (http://www.shauninman.com/archive/2011/10/20/day_o_mac_menu_...) Adds a drop down calendar to the menubar.

- Alfred (http://www.alfredapp.com/) Another vote for Alfred. Much quicker and more powerful than Spotlight.

- 1Password (https://agilebits.com/onepassword) Remembers passwords/logins and makes it super easy to auto login to sites.

[gte910h]

DragonDrop (shake the mouse drop stuff in an always on top window, then drag it back out when you find where you want to drop it and it disappears)

Divy (Lay out all your windows on a grid extremely quickly)

Skitch (quickly marking up screenshots, photos, etc)

WeatherHD (Lap warming tool, also renders beautiful full screen weather for what's happening where you are/where you set it to)

Visual JSON (JSON validator, builder)

Crash Plan Pro (a pretty reasonably non-invasive offsite backup program)

1Password (Cross platform/Smartphone password autofill manager)

Camouflage (Hides everything on the desktop when you present)

Caffeine (Keeps the laptop awake while you're presenting)

Daisy Disk (Finds the crap you can delete and clean off the hard drive, quickly beautifully, and makes cleanup a joy)

Screenflow (Excellent videocasting/webcasting/tutorial making software) (Currently on sale at http://www.mupromo.com/ for half off its $99 pricetag with other stuff included)

Screenshots (Fantastic tool for taking a picture of exactly the section of the screen you want, and nothing more).

If you have iOS devices you like/use too, AirDisplay (makes an iPad or iPhone an extension of the mac desktop) and AirServer (makes the mac a mirror of the iOS screen using Airplay).

[msutherl]

Things I haven't seen here yet:

1. Backblaze for off-site backups: http://backblaze.com 2. Dash for access docs: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dash-docs-snippets/id45803487... 3. Solarized and ir_black themes for Terminal and all editors: http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized / http://blog.toddwerth.com/entries/13 (I use ir_black w/ Terminal.app, terminal Vim and the sidebar fork of Macvim: https://github.com/alloy/macvim/wiki/Screenshots) 4. This fork of GitX: http://gitx.laullon.com/ 5. DTerm (pop-up terminal emulator for the occasional 'less README'): http://decimus.net/DTerm 6. XScope (rulers and stuff for UI design): http://xscopeapp.com/ 7. LittleSnapper (tried everything, this is the fastest and cleanest way to collect UI inspiration – Skitch + Evernote would be my second choice): http://www.realmacsoftware.com/littlesnapper/ 8. Found (don't use this much, but it's awesome. Indexes Gmal, Dropbox and Google Drive and lets you search and launch files – a bit like Alfred): https://www.foundapp.com/ 9. DaisyDisk (essential harddrive file visualization): http://www.daisydiskapp.com/

And, another shoutout for Quicksilver – more powerful than Alfred.

[msutherl]

1. Backblaze for off-site backups: http://backblaze.com

2. Dash for access docs: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dash-docs-snippets/id45803487....

3. Solarized and ir_black themes for Terminal and all editors: http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized / http://blog.toddwerth.com/entries/13 (I use ir_black w/ Terminal.app, terminal Vim and the sidebar fork of Macvim: https://github.com/alloy/macvim/wiki/Screenshots)

4. This fork of GitX: http://gitx.laullon.com/

5. DTerm (pop-up terminal emulator for the occasional 'less README'): http://decimus.net/DTerm

6. XScope (rulers and stuff for UI design): http://xscopeapp.com/

7. LittleSnapper (tried everything, this is the fastest and cleanest way to collect UI inspiration – Skitch + Evernote would be my second choice): http://www.realmacsoftware.com/littlesnapper/

8. Found (don't use this much, but it's awesome. Indexes Gmal, Dropbox and Google Drive and lets you search and launch files – a bit like Alfred): https://www.foundapp.com/

9. DaisyDisk (essential harddrive file visualization): http://www.daisydiskapp.com/

[benregn]

Just out of curiosity, what makes Quicksilver more powerful than Alfred?

[block]

These are the things I use daily (most are free!):

[Development] Spotlight - OSX built in app launcher etc SourceTree - GUI Git/Hg/SVN client. HomeBrew - like apt, yum package manager MacVim - Coming from the GUI world look at Janus iTerm2 (Zsh, OhMyZSH plugins) MAMP - Apache, MySQL etc dev env (like XAMPP) $ CSSEdit - GUI CSS editor, mainly use vim CyberDuck - (s)FTP Sequel Pro - MySQL GUI, SSH connection $ Parallels - VM

[Calendars] - iCal or $ Busy Cal [Mail] - OSX Mail [Office] - $ iWork, LibreOffice [Feed Reader] - NetNewsWire [Torrent] - Transmission [Transcode] - Handbrake

[Utilities] $ little snitch - Network monitor MenuMeters - Free limited version of iStatMenus Flip4mac WMV in Quicktime Perian (Make QuickTime like VLC) TwoUp - free window basic management RightZoom - Maximise zoom button ClipMenu - Multi Copy, Paste board UnArchiver - File Decompression CleanArchiver - File compression (sans .DS_Store) NameChanger - GUI for mass renaming files Onyx - System maintenance and set extra OS defaults Click2Flash - Extension in Safari blocks flash defaults to HD mp4, right click to download video.

[FireBeyond]

BusyCal looked good. Until I saw it was $50. Plus another $40 to allow syncing?!?

Sorry, I find it really hard to justify nearly $100 for a calendar app.

[MehdiEG]

Interesting - I haven't actually reviewed my Mac's config in a while - I might pick up a few goodies in those lists myself. For what it's worth, this is what I would automatically install on any new Mac:

- iStat Menus: RAM, network and CPU usage right in your menu bar. Ridiculously useful.

- Video player: VLC

- FTP: CyberDuck. Desperately slow to launch and not a big fan of the UI but it's free, it works and I use FTP rarely enough to never have bothered looking for something better.

- gfxCardStatus - not necessarily a must-have but quite handy to see which app is causing your Mac to switch to the battery-sucking discrete GPU.

- Email: MailPlane (gmail / google apps only). I have to say that I've never found what I would consider to be a great email client for my taste on either Mac or Windows. So these days, I stick with Gmail's web interface (which I'm not a big fan of either but there's no native app that I find any better).

- Text Editor: TextWrangler. I still prefer Notepad++ though (in part because TextWrangler, like so many apps on Mac OS X, is so slow to launch).

- DaisyDisk - for later when you'll inevitably run out of disk space.

- Parallels Desktop for Windows + Remote Desktop Connection to manage Windows servers. I wish there was a better RDP client and a decent SSMS-like SQL Server client.

- Apps that used to be must-have but that I no longer use: HandBrake (DVD ripping), LiquidCD (CD / DVD burning), NetNewsWire (RSS)

That's about it. Random stuff that you might or might not need: Acorn (simple, cheap image editor), CoconutBattery, Hues (standalone color picker), iStumbler (Max OS X's NetStumbler), MacHg (Mercurial client). You can try Sparrow for email too.

That's it - have surprisingly few apps actually.

[MehdiEG]

BTW, I hope that you upgraded the RAM in the Air to 8GB if you intend to run a VM on it. Trying to work on both Mac OS X and a VM on 4GB is quickly going to get very painful.

TBH, if I was going to buy a new Mac today, I'd go for the new MacBook Pro, purely for being able to have 16GB of RAM. Even with 8GB, my Mac still regularly struggles to keep going when I've got my VM up together with a web browser and XCode (and let's not even talk about Photoshop) on the Mac side.

[AdamGibbins]

Better RDP client = CoRD (http://cord.sourceforge.net/)

[haar]

  Try out ZSH if you want to try something slightly different to Bash
  Package Manager: Homebrew - https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew
  Terminal/Emulator: iTerm2 - http://www.iterm2.com/
  Vim running in iTerm2 via Homebrew
  Chat Client: Adium - http://adium.im/
  MySQL DB GUI: Sequel Pro - http://www.sequelpro.com/
  Mail: Sparrow - http://sparrowmailapp.com/
  Git GUI: GitX (L) - http://gitx.laullon.com/
  Window "manager" : Shiftit - https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt
  General productivity: I love QuickSilver, however it's been crashing
  quite frequently on me since I installed Lion, so I'm giving Alfred a try at the moment.

Note: all of the above are at least free (lite), if not completely free. I was thrown completely in the deep-end with terminal vim and just took to it as part of my "getting used to Mac" steps, which I think benefited me with respect to getting down with the nitty gritty of it and not complaining it was different to my Notepad++ experience prior on Windows.

[gks]

Apps that I install immediately upon re-installation or a new Mac:

* 1Password - Password facilitator (http://www.agilebits.com, buy the Mac App Store version)

* OmniFocus - GTD/Todo list (http://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus)

* OmniOutliner - Best list makinga pp ever (http://www.omnigroup.com/omnioutliner)

* OmniGraffle - Great for development purposes (http://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle)

* Acorn - Quick image editing (http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn)

* VoodooPad - Personal Wiki (http://www.flyingmeat.com/voodoopad)

* Byword - Markdown editor (http://bywordapp.com/)

* Dropbox - Duh (http://www.dropbox.com)

* Fantastical - Calendar app (http://flexibits.com/)

* Launchbar - Launcher (http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/)

* Reeder - Google Reader client (http://reederapp.com/)

* Transmit - SFTP (http://panic.com/transmit/)

* VLC - Video (http://www.videolan.org)

Along with iA Writer, Writeroom, Sublime Text, etc etc... there are a lot of great apps. The above is my favorites.

[AdamGibbins]

* Witch (http://manytricks.com/witch/) - Gives you Alt-Tab (Window switching) alongside the default Cmd-Tab (Application Switching).

* Moom (http://manytricks.com/moom/) - allows you to move windows around a lot easier.

* TotalFinder (http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/) - Finder with tabs and other useful bits.

* CoRD (http://cord.sourceforge.net/) - Decent RDP client (better than the official Microsoft one).

* Caffeine (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/caffeine/id411246225) - Stops the screensaver activating at the click of a button.

* CleanMyMac (http://macpaw.com/cleanmymac) - Can strip the unwanted language packs etc from applications saving you a significant amount of space.

* Enqueue (http://www.enqueueapp.com/) - Decent iTunes replacement, with FLAC support.

* Flu.x (http://stereopsis.com/flux/) - Warmer screen during dark hours, makes it easier to work in dim light.

* SourceTree (http://www.sourcetreeapp.com/) - Decent GUI Git/Hg/SVN client.

* GrabBox (http://grabbox.devsoft.no/) - Instantly throws screenshots into your Dropbox public folder.

* iStat Menus (http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/) - Memory and CPU utilisation in your menu bar.

* YoruFukurou (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/yorufukurou/id428834068) - Decent Twitter client with muting rules etc.

[pooriaazimi]

I used and loved TotalFinder, but it was sooo buggy (specially when copying large files off external drives) that I ended up uninstalling it in disgust. I'm using vanilla Finder.app right now, and don't miss it terribly.

If you need a 'Finder Pro', I suggest PathFinder. version 6 looks promising. I might be tempted to buy it: http://cocoatech.com/pathfinder/

[kennu]

I don't know if many people agree with this, but I would also recommend you to give Apple's built-in OSX apps a try before installing replacements. I've used Mail, Calendar, Address Book and Terminal for many years without feeling a compelling need for alternatives. They usually work well if you're happy with the way they've been designed and don't try to bend them too much to your old habits.

Other apps that I always install on new Macs are Homebrew, VLC, Adium, MacIrssi and then the usual stuff that's on any PC (Spotify, Skype, Dropbox, Minecraft, F.lux).

And yeah it's important to install Xcode, otherwise your system doesn't have a C compiler so you can't do much. I think Git is also included with it.

[Jun8]

DVD Ripper is an excellent tool that I use often. If you deal with video you will want to install Handbrake, too (and of course vlc).

Geektool is an excellent tool that makes a lot of stats about your Mac on the desktop, it's infinitely customizable, but has a steep learning curve, maybe to be installed in the second batch.

I hate iCal, although it does integrate different calendars. I think it and Mail tool are some of the poorest designed Mac software (e.g. compared with Outlook) but what are you going to do.

Secrets is another advanced tool, that exposes many hidden setting for the Mac.

[rdrimmie]

I'm a big fan of Jumpcut (http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/), a dedicated clipboard manager. Several other tools that include clipboard management have been mentioned but if you don't want the rest of the functionality, this is great for it.

iCal and Mail do a fantastic job syncing with Google and Exchange, so I use those.

[moocow01]

* iWork - Cheaper than Office and better in my opinion

* Transmit - FTP

* Pixelmator - 90% of Photoshop without the high cost but still with a slick interface

* Cornerstone/Versions - SVN

* Textmate - Code editor

* Wunderlist - Todo list

* Fantastical - Easy way to access and add dates to your mac calendar

* Concentrate - Block HN and other stuff when you need to get things done

(Note: Most of these are not free and are between $10-$80 but well worth it in my opinion)