What Mac apps would you recommend for someone used to using Windows?

Question

Just got a new developer job, working on a Mac, mainly used Windows before. What apps would you recommend to ease transitioning? What apps do you feel are "mandatory"?

Mike Coutermarsh · Accepted Answer

I love iTerm. It's basically a supped up version of Mac's basic terminal (has tabs, tmux integration, more customizable).

Ryan Hoover · Answer

f.lux is delightful.  This app dims your computer monitor later in the day when the sun sets to relieve eye strain. 🌞🌚

Vinh Pham · Answer

Moom helps saves you time by zooming windows to just about any configuration you need.

Matteo Petrani · Answer

Switch between open windows, not only between programs

Mike Coutermarsh · Answer

Sketch is a great mac only design tool. I'm definitely NOT a designer. But I still find it very useful occasionally for making small edits to designs / grabbing CSS for something.

Vinh Pham · Answer

I think Sketch Toolbox is a must-have for all Sketch users. Like the link subtitle says, it's a super simple plugin manager for Sketch that lets you search for and install Sketch plugins.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff · Answer

My eyes are so thankful for f.lux 🙏

Mike Coutermarsh · Answer

I use this all the time. Really helpful when working anything out with numbers.

Sabina Caldwell · Answer

I've made the switch from Windows to an Apple product (MacBook Air) fairly recently, and one of the few apps I've downloaded on my notebook (an app I've used previously with Windows) is NoteLedge.  It's a note-taking app that doubles as media organizer, PDF editor (highlighting and annotations), a sketching/drawing platform and a great way to visualize your projects. I use it both at work and at home, for various things. At work I use it for note-taking during meetings and project brainstorming, and at home I use for creating to-do lists and adding them to my calendar and since I'm an avid cook, I save recipes in this app as well, sorted into individual folders. Overall, this app make life easier, at least for me

Vinh Pham · Answer

Alfred is one of the first apps I install on a fresh Mac. I primarily use it for launching apps, but there's also clipboard history, workflow automation, system controls, and a lot more.

Jens Becker · Answer

Not as shiny and fancy as some of its recent competitors. But this is till my go to tool to emulate the Windows snapping feature.

Ayrton De Craene · Answer

If you're into watching movies/tv shows Caption is such a time saver to find the right subtitles!

Answer

This little app allows you to quickly position your apps on your screen. This is one of those apps that you turn on and forget about. In fact, I will often forget that it doesn't come bundled natively with MacOS while using boxes that don't have it.

Mike Coutermarsh · Answer

Dash is super useful for quickly looking up docs for almost any language/API. I sync my most used languages/tools so I have access to the docs even when offline.

It's often faster to search Dash than it is to google.

Goldy Arora · Answer

I use this everyday to save time on some of the emails i answer with same canned answers, it syncs perfectly with my iPhone too.

Rick Kettner · Answer

Great client for working with Git repositories.

Vinh Pham · Answer

Always be backing up. SuperDuper is a great for creating a fully bootable backups for recovery. It's a great option to be used instead of or in addition to Apple's Time Machine.

Mike Coutermarsh · Answer

CloudApp is available for Windows too. But I think their Mac version is really well done. Very useful if you work on a remote team. Can grab a screenshot / annotate it / share in Slack. Makes communicating easier.

Also works great in pull requests. Can make a gif of a change with CloudApp then include it in your PR to show what changed.

Mike Coutermarsh · Answer

I'm a developer too. I LOVE LOVE Paste. It's a seriously awesome clipboard manager. Super easy to store code snippets & then search for them later (even weeks later) when you need them.

Daniel Georgiev · Answer

The first app I install everywhere. I think everyone should have software to match the monitor brightness to the light around you for less eyestrain

mohammed · Answer

If you really attached to your keyboard Alfred is your friend!

Anne-Laure Le Cunff · Answer

I can't count how many times I use Alfred everyday. It's become indispensable to me.

Dionis Loire · Answer

You can use Taskade on PC or Web. https://www.taskade.com/downloads
The Chrome and Firefox extensions are very powerful and turns your browser into a productivity machine.

Matt Heslington · Answer

Great as a text expander and snippet manager too.

Answer

My problem with switching from Windows to Mac is the active windows management, which this app covers the solution!

Ivan Mir · Answer

If you've been using ManicTime or RescueTime for productivity and time tracking, then Qbserve (my app) is a native Mac alternative for them.

Linda Neal · Answer

I recently made the switch from Windows to Mac, and one of the apps I got was NoteLedge (a friend recommended it), and I'm quite happy wiith it so far. It's easy to use and while I've just been taking notes with it on my MacBook Air,  I find it enjoyable. Recommended it.

Answer

I'm using this little gem since it's early days. It gives you same iOS-style popup bubble when text is selected. Customise it with many extensions to suit your need (I'm using DuckDuckGo, link shortener, Trello, maps and translate shortcuts.)

Luuk Lamers · Answer

Very good screen recording and trimming of videos

@pugson · Answer

In case you need to run Windows again 😉️

Alamo aka 狐狸 · Answer

I guess as a developer you would have a lot of packages, libs, developing tools ... to install. 
Use homebrew will be painless to do almost all such works, just a little faster, swifter, lighter, easier and happier.

Luuk Lamers · Answer

Great application for streaming torrents (for downloading too, but don't let the NSA hear that).

Answer

Best password manager

iBambooMart · Answer

simple to use

Bryce Hamrick · Answer

The high res videos in this screensaver are mesmerizing. I use hot corners to lock my screen when I get up and walk away, sometimes I find myself pausing for a moment to enjoy the view.

Rick Kettner · Answer

One of several great web development tools.  Some prefer Sublime 3, but this is my favorite.

marginnote pro · Answer

Great Ebook Reading and Learning App

Rick Kettner · Answer

Great modern vector design tool for everything from wireframes to final designs.  It's like Adobe Illustrator, but modernized and for a flat fee instead of subscription.

Phil Soundczek · Answer

If you are at least a bit hacky, you have to know about Hammerspoon and it's relatives. Can't live without it anymore. 
Open Source, limitless, seamless automation on Mac OS.

Answer

I love every aspect of this app. Grab a screenshot with a hotkey shortcut, the app will upload it to the cloud and copies you the link to clipboard. You can set it up to use GDrive as an upload server (even S3 or whatever you want). Also, the app can record and upload video GIFs out of the box.

Answer

I LOVE the natural language processing in the app. The easiest way to add an entry to calendar.

A.Fairiz · Answer

I've used the version 3 and I absolutely hated it. It makes my Mac felt like Windows. Maybe in your case, that's a good thing.

Koushik · Answer

If you are so used to Windows, there is every chance that you use the Tiny Calendar available on the Windows Task Bar. Itsycal for macOS gives you that feel + lot more flexibility

Luuk Lamers · Answer

Should be the default on all platforms! Plays everything you throw at it, is very easy to use and supports almost all the subtitle formats

Aswin Bakshi · Answer

One of the best client only available on mac and iOS devices