macOS

I've been a mac user for over 10 years and now heavily relies on Apple ecosystem.

I try to keep my setup as minimal as possible. I stick with built-in apps whenever it possible. First of all, they are good enough for me, and second - because they are part of Apple ecosystem they support all cool features, like Continuity. I also install apps via AppStore whenever possible.

Apps

Safari

My main browser for everyday surfing. I don't use any extensions for it.

Some tips:

• Page preview - killer feature

• Use ⌘ + / to toggle full link preview displayed in the bottom left corner

• Any page can be saved to Apple Books as a PDF via Share menu.

Quicklook

Quicklook preview is the reason I love macOS so much. I use several plugins with it:

• QLColorCode - preview source code with syntax highlighting

• qlstephen - preview files without extensions

• QLVideo - preview media (e.g. webm, mkv)

I also wrote QLColorCodeThemer to change QLColorCode color style based on macOS theme. I use base16/eighties for a Dark mode and base16/one-light with light theme.

Terminal

I use standard macOS terminal with my own theme for it.

terminal

Since macOS Catalina I've switched to Zsh as my main shell.

Notable Mentions

• DjView - relatively good open source djvu viewer, it can also export

  documents to PDF

• Fanny - allows you to monitor CPU/GPU temperature and fans speed

• Intel Power Gadget - a tool to monitor your CPU

• Raw Photo Processor (RPP) - a RAW converter to work with colors

• SlowQuitApps - prevent you accidentally pressing ⌘ + Q

• Serviio - a programm to stream movis from mac to SmartTV

• Transmission - simple BitTorrent client

• TunnelBlick - a great OpenVPN client for macOS

• VLC - this is what I use to watch movies

Notes

Remote access

You can access another mac from your mac. The other mac should enable file sharing.

Use these commands:

• smb://192.168.255.255 - to mount shared mac in Finder

• vnc://192.168.255.255 - for Screen Sharing

Working with NTFS

From time to time you need to work with NTFS HDD. The best option would be to use [Paragon], there is another freeware app called Mounty.

Links

• Development of Apple's original Macintosh