MacOS is the best operating system for desktops, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. Thankfully, there are a lot of third party apps you can install to make your experience so much better.
Package Manager - Homebrew
Homebrew is absolutely essential even if you’re not a programmer. It’s like apt in Debian based Linux distros or pacman in Arch based ones, but simpler and more intuitive.
To install it, launch your terminal and enter this
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Screenshot - Snipaste
Snipaste is not only the best screenshot tool on Windows, but also on Mac.
To install it, launch terminal and enter the following:
brew install snipaste
Clipboard Manager - Maccy
Windows and KDE have clipboard manager built-in, though they’re pretty bad compared to third party tools like Ditto (for Windows) or CopyQ (for Linux). In MacOS, there’s no built-in clipboard manager, but there’s an awesome third party one.
It’s free, has search feature, can display image, and has a configurable shortcut for it to pop up. It still has some important features missing compared to Ditto in Windows, but it’s good enough for general use.
It’s $330 in App store but you can download for free from the website. Just type $0 and a random fake email for receipt and the download will start.
Windows Snapper - Rectangle
If you come from Windows or Linux, you’ll find it unbelievable that there’s no keyboard shortcut to snap your windows to the left, the right, or maximize them. Rectangle, the successor of Spectacle, gives you this essential ability with configurable keyboard shortcuts.
To download it, simply launch your terminal and enter this
brew install --cask rectangle
Launching Apps on Dock with Keyboard - Snap
If you’re a power user in Windows, you’ll know that you can press Windows + number to open apps on the taskbar, for example Windows+1 for the first (leftmost) item on the taskbar.
MacOS does not have this keyboard shortcut built-in, but you can download Snap to retrieve this simple but powerful feature. It should work out of the box, with command replacing Windows in Windows. The shortcut is not configurable sadly.
Quickly Move Between Displays - CatchMouse
If you’re have one or more external displays, you’ll want to quickly move to another display instead of slowly dragging your cursor to the target position. CatchMouse provides configurable keyboard shortcuts to move to a display.
Here’s the direct downloading link.
After pressing the shortcut, your cursor will appear right at the middle of the corresponding display.
Only show relevant menubar items - Bartender
If your MacBook has a notch, some menubar (the topmost bar) items may be hidden, making you unable to access them unless you keep rearranging the items with command+drag.
To circumvent the problem, you can use Bartender, which gives you a configurable second layer of menubar. You can set what apps to appear in the 1st layer and which for the second layer, so that all menubar items can be accessed.
It’s not free, but after the free trial it only pops up to tell you to buy it from time to time while still letting you access full features, like WinRAR.
Prevent Overcharging - Aldente
To extend battery life, you better maintain the state of charge between 20% and 80%. However, when you’re at home using your MacBook, it would be most inconvenient having to keep looking at the state of charge and decide if it should be plugged in or not. The built-in “Optimized Battery Charging” feature doesn’t work so well either.
Thankfully, there’s a tool called Aldente that can make your MacBook stay at a certain percentage.
Simply go to its release page, download the dmg file, and double click to get it installed. The configuration for the free version is minimalistic. You only need to decide what percentage do you want to set as the charging cap.