My MacOS Toolbox

I wrote a short post about tools I like for Windows a while ago. Well, I recently got a Mac for work, and installed some tools to make MacOS work better for me. Whether you're coming from Windows or Linux, or have always used MacOS, I hope you'll find a few of these useful:

Homebrew

Homebrew

The Missing Package Manager for macOS (or Linux).

Homebrew

The package manager for MacOS. You probably already know about it, and if you're not using it, you're missing out.

Iterm2

iTerm2 - macOS Terminal Replacement

iTerm2 is a replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm

macOS Terminal Replacement

I don't know how to explain it. It's just better than the built in MacOS terminal.

Rectangle

Rectangle

Move and resize windows in macOS using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas. The official page for Rectangle.

One of the first things I notices about MacOS was the lack of window snapping. No way to quickly put two windows side-by-side with a quick flick of the mouse. No way to maximize (not fullscreen) a window.

Rectangle provides that functionality. Windows snapping, tiling shortcuts, better Window management in general. Huge improvement.

Raycast

Raycast - Your shortcut to everything

A collection of powerful productivity tools all within an extendable launcher.

Your shortcut to everything

Spotlight on steroids. An application launcher, a calendar, a color picker, a calculator, a screenshot tool, media controls, you name it, all at Cmd+Space.

Autoraise

GitHub - sbmpost/AutoRaise: AutoRaise (and focus) a window when hovering over it with the mouse

AutoRaise (and focus) a window when hovering over it with the mouse - sbmpost/AutoRaise

GitHubsbmpost

Ok, I've got to admit, this one is a little niche, and looks a bit sketchy. It allows you to focus a window by hovering it, rather than clicking on it. It's a feature on some Linux distros and once you get used to it, it's super convinient.

Maccy

Maccy - macOS clipboard manager

Clipboard manager for macOS which does one job - keep your copy history at hand. Lightweight. Open source. No fluff.

macOS clipboard managerScience Writer

A clipboard manager for MacOS. If you use your clipboard a lot, having a clipboard history is super handy. Great for "borrowing" code from ChatGPT, StackOverflow, or even just another file in a project.

Linear Mouse

LinearMouse | The mouse and trackpad utility for Mac.

Customize mouse and trackpad’s scrolling direction, pointer acceleration, pointer speed and so on…

The mouse and trackpad utility for Mac.

If you've ever used a Mac with a boring "normal" mouse (not a touchpad or an Apple mouse), you probably have some frustrations. Natural scrolling may work great on a touchpad, but it's super counter-intuitive on a standard scroll wheel. Pointer acceleration may also take some getting used to if you're coming from a different operating system. If your mouse has forward/back buttons, those may not work consistently either. Linear Mouse fixes all of these.

Ice

Ice - Menu Bar Manager

Ice is a powerful menu bar management tool. While its primary function is hiding and showing menu bar items, it aims to cover a wide variety of additional features to make it one of the most versatile menu bar tools available. - Ice - Menu Bar Manager

Menu Bar Manager

If you've installed a bunch of these tools, you probably have icons cluttering up your menubar. Ice can hide those for a cleaner appearance.

Well, there you have it. Some tools for MacOS that I really like. Some are just general improvements, some are tweaks to make it more like other operating systems, but they're all pretty handy in my book. Give some of them a try and see what you think!