My Software

I recently decided to do a fresh install of OS X on my MacBook now that Yosemite is out, so I thought it would be a good time to post all the software I currently use. It turns out that I use a lot of apps. This list will probably be outdated within a month.

Updated: December 9, 2014

Web Browsers

  • Safari: I’m trying this again as my primary personal browser.
  • Google Chrome: My favorite browser for web development.
  • Firefox: Occasionally still used for development and testing.

Communication & Organization

  • Messages: For iMessage, Text Messages, Jabber, and Google Talk.
  • HipChat: For work chat. I think I like the look of Slack better though.
  • Zoom: The service we use for video conferencing at work.
  • Tweetbot: My favorite Twitter app.
  • Mail: Occasionally used for non Gmail accounts.
  • Calendar: This usually makes using my work calendar tolerable.
  • Reminders: Mostly for quick reminders and personal to-do lists.
  • Wunderlist: For work tasks. I still haven’t found the perfect to-do list app, but Wunderlist is pretty good and free.
  • Evernote: I’m trying to keep more of my notes here now.
  • Pocket: Where I store articles that I want to read but will never have time to read. I like to install the app in OS X because it will now add a link to the system sharing menu.

Utilities

  • 1Password: I don’t know how I ever lived without this app.
  • Dropbox: The best cloud drive service available.
  • OneDrive: Because my Dropbox account is full.
  • CrashPlan: For online data backups.
  • Alfred: Still much more useful than Spotlight.
  • Divvy: I love it when my windows line up in a grid.
  • Bartender: I have a lot of icons in my menu bar. This app helps with that.
  • Caffeine: Keeps my screen from going to sleep when I don’t want it to.
  • CloudApp: Used mostly for sharing images. I just have the free account, but I rarely need more than that.
  • ColorSnapper: Handy little app to grab colors on the screen.
  • Scroll Reverser: I’m fully adjusted to Apple’s reversed scrolling on a trackpad, but I don’t know that I ever will want to reverse scrolling with my mouse. This app can help with that problem.
  • Choosy: This app looks to be abandoned, but it’s still super useful if you use more than one browser at a time.
  • Day-O: Apparently this won’t be updated for Yosemite, but it still works fine as long as you don’t use dark mode. I’ve also tried using Fantastical to replace this.
  • Private Internet Access: The app seems a bit ugly, but it works I guess.
  • TeamViewer: The best thing I could find to replace LogMeIn when they eliminated their free service (I still really miss LogMeIn).
  • Microsoft Remote Desktop: I like this better than TeamViewer when I can use it locally, but I don’t have a good way to use it remotely right now.
  • AppZapper: Great for fully removing apps from OS X.
  • Archiver: I still use the old version of this for RAR files and stuff.
  • gfxCardStatus: Helpful to see which video card my MacBook is currently using. You can also force the MacBook to switch back and forth.

Work

  • Coda: Still my favorite editor for code. Other contenders include Brackets (which I still need to try), Sublime Text (which I need to try again), and Espresso (which has one of my favorite app icons ever).
  • Atom: I use this as my secondary editor and usually use it for quick editing of files, especially when browsing files through Terminal.
  • Transmit: I don’t send many files over FTP anymore, but I still find a lot of uses for this app.
  • Sketch: I’m trying to break out of Fireworks (now that Adobe is killing it), and Sketch seems pretty impressive so far.
  • Adobe Creative Cloud: Sometimes I still need the Adobe apps.
    • Fireworks
    • Illustrator
    • Lightroom
    • Photoshop
  • ImageOptim: It’s magic.
  • LittleSnapper: For collecting inspiration. I’m still trying to decide if I want to upgrade this to Ember.
  • Apple Terminal: A lot of people I know use iTerm2, but I prefer Terminal because I think it looks much cleaner.
  • Git: Every developer uses this now, right?
  • Tower: My favorite Git client right now. I don’t like to use the command prompt for Git unless I have to. I’ve also used SourceTree a bit, and I still keep the GitHub app around mostly for the amazing “undo” feature.
  • Xcode: I try to just install the Command Line Tools.
  • VirtualBox: Very good virtualization app for free. It works with Vagrant, and I also use it with the modern.ie virtual machines for Internet Explorer testing.
  • Vagrant: For local development.
  • MAMP/MAMP PRO: I’m trying to move away from this in favor of Vagrant, but MAMP is just so easy.
  • CodeKit: Grunt could probably replace this, but this app is so nice and easy.
  • Base: A nice little database editor.

Media & Gaming

  • iTunes: I also just started using iTunes Match, which seems pretty nice so far.
  • Last.fm: Keeps track of music I listen to.
  • VLC: It plays just about anything.
  • Plex Media Server: I love this app so much.
  • HandBrake: My primary video encoding app.
  • Subler: Simple way to convert video file containers.
  • MetaZ: Nice looking app for adding meta info to videos.
  • Steam: Where buy most of my games these days
  • Origin: I have to use this now for EA games apparently.
  • OpenEmu: A collection game console emulators wrapped in an beautiful interface.
  • TeamSpeak: Use this for Counter-Strike chat.

Home & Office

  • iA Writer: The markdown editor I use for writing.
  • iWork: I’m trying to avoid installing Microsoft Office.
    • Pages
    • Numbers
    • Keynote
  • iPhoto: Mostly for access to iCloud photos.
  • YNAB: For budgeting. I’m not in love with it, but my wife hates it when I keep switching software on her.
  • Delicious Library: The best option I have right now for cataloging movies and stuff.

Updates

  • December 9, 2014: Added Bartender