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https://github.com/artginzburg/macOS-Essentials

 Apps and sets that are nice to use
https://github.com/artginzburg/macOS-Essentials

List: macOS-Essentials

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 Apps and sets that are nice to use

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README 

        
macOS Essentials


Apps and sets that are nice to use on our beatiful system of choice.



##### Contents



- [Applications](#applications)

  - [Productivity](#productivity)

  - [Code](#code)

  - [Social](#social)

  - [Music](#music)

  - [Video](#video)

  - [Images](#images)

  - [Browsers](#browsers)

    - [Safari Extensions](#safari-extensions)

  - [Utilities](#utilities)

  - [Interesting, but not essential](#interesting-but-not-essential)

- [Command Line tools](#command-line-tools)

  - [Packages](#packages)

- [Quick Tips](#quick-tips)



## Applications



Most of them are the newest and most convenient applications, replacing the already outdated ones.



### Productivity



#### [Maccy](https://github.com/p0deje/Maccy) - clipboard manager



- Keeps the history of what you copy and lets you easily navigate, search and use previous clipboard contents.



- It has wonderful ⌘+⇧+C shortcut, but I changed it to ⌥+⇧+C because the initial option is used in many other applications.



#### [Folx](https://mac.eltima.com/torrent-client.html) - Torrent Client



- An excellent minimalistic torrent downloader. Makes downloading torrent files and creating torrents for various trackers extremely easy.



#### [Lungo](https://sindresorhus.com/lungo) - A menu bar app that keeps your Mac awake.

> Modern alternative to [Caffeine](https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24120/caffeine)



- Many various preferences.

- Scriptable.

- Not so heavy like [Amphetamine](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/amphetamine/id937984704).



#### [LocalSwitch](https://github.com/DaFuqtor/LocalSwitch) - Menu bar interface for `apachectl`



- Allows you to quickly stop, run or restart native macOS server. 

- I'm just getting annoyed of running `sudo apachectl stop` and `sudo apachectl start` every time I need to manage my local server.



### Code



#### [VS Code](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode) — Main code editor



- Easy-to-use with large projects.

- The best editor with many extensions that I use to write code in.

- I like to use VSC SynthWave '84 theme. Here is how it looks:



![VSC](img/vsc.png)



#### [Sublime Text](https://www.sublimetext.com) - Additional Text Editor



- Use this editor in addition to VSC for its blazing fast speed of opening files.

- I use it just to quickly edit configs and markdown files.

- Built-in Monokai theme (dark, yea).



#### [GitHub Desktop](https://desktop.github.com) - Git client



- Convenient version control.

- Has a wonderful dark theme.



### Social



#### [Telegram](https://desktop.telegram.org/) - Fastest Messenger

> All other messengers just suck.



- Native and clean interface.

- Stickers.

- ???



#### [Spark](https://sparkmailapp.com/) - Email client



- Cool categorizaton of emails.

- Just. looks. nice. (And is extremely fast)



#### [Flume](https://flumeapp.com) - Instagram client



- Allows us to do everything we do in Instagram on mobiles.



### Music



#### [Shazam](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shazam/id897118787) - Menu bar that discovers music, video & lyrics

> Siri already has built-in Shazam, but it sucks.



- Old known app now on desktop.

- One click shazaming.

- Configurable keyboard shortcut.



#### [NepTunes](https://micropixels.software/neptunes) - iTunes and Spotify controller



- All media actions from beautiful artwork on your Desktop.

- It can replace default track changing notfication.



### Video



#### [Beamer](https://beamer-app.com) - Stream to Apple TV and Chromecast



- Super-minimalistic UI.

- Fast connection.

- All common video formats. Never had any troubles.

- All popular subtitle formats are also supported.



#### [IINA](https://github.com/lhc70000/iina) - Video player



- Based on mpv.

- It's like VLC, but fast, modern and native.



### Images



#### [Photoshop](https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html) - Edit photos

> My second hobby.



- Doesn't need to be present, yea?



#### [Aerate](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aerate/id1480882940) - better Save for Web



- Reduces image file sizes.

- Removes invisible junk (comments, thumbnails and other metadata).



### Browsers



#### [Safari](https://www.apple.com/lae/safari/)



- It's just native to macOS, which means incredible speed and the lowest battery waste.



##### Safari Extensions



- [OverPicture](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/overpicture-for-safari/id1188020834) - Allows you to play any web video in Picture-In-Picture mode. It also has a nice P shortcut and the custom button in popular players like YouTube.

- [AdGuard](https://adguard.com/en/adguard-mac/overview.html) - Ad content blocker based on [Safari native content blocking API's](https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Extensions/Conceptual/ContentBlockingRules/Introduction/Introduction.html).

- [Cascadea](https://cascadea.app) - Custom styles. Allows importing of themes from Stylish, which has really wide community. I use it to create or install dark themes for websites without a dark mode option.

  - [GitHub Dark](https://github.com/StylishThemes/GitHub-Dark)

- [Dark Reader](https://darkreader.org/safari/) - For websites that don't have a nice Stylish theme, I use Dark Reader to let my eyes enjoy the dark mode.

- [Ghounter](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ghounter/id1438633677) - Displays the downloads count on any public Releases page in GitHub.

- [AutoPagerize](https://safari-extensions.apple.com/details/?id=net.autopagerize.autppagerizeforsafari-XH6FQ533G6) - Auto-loads paginated websites (e.g. Google Search).



#### [Google Chrome](https://www.google.com/chrome/)



- Indispensably good Dev tools for web development.

- Overtakes Safari in the number of extensions.



### Utilities



#### [AppCleaner](https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/) - Fully uninstall unwanted apps



- Finds all the files using space of your Hard Drive unnecessarily after deleting the app to which these files belong.

- Auto-asks to remove residual files when you delete app from Applications folder.



### Interesting, but not essential



#### [WebToLayers](//neededapps.com/webtolayers/) and [ScreenToLayers](//neededapps.com/screentolayers/) - Convert screens and web pages to layered Photoshop documents



## Command Line tools



### [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/)



> Essential package manager for macOS.



Allows you to run `brew install ` and `brew cask install ` to install nearly everything you need.



#### Install Homebrew



```powershell

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

```



### Packages



> Remember, just `brew install ` — 3 seconds for the magic to appear!



- [youtube-dl](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl) - Download media from YouTube and other video sites.



- [thefuck](https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck) - Corrects errors in previous console commands.



    ```powershell

    $ puthon

    No command 'puthon' found

    $ fuck

    Python 3.4.2 (default, Oct  8 2014, 13:08:17)

    ```

    

  - I also use russian keyboard layout so added `alias агсл='fuck'` to my `.bash_profile`



- [qrencode](https://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/index.html.en) - Accepts a string or a list of data chunks then encodes in a QR Code symbol as a bitmap array.



- [wifi-pass](https://github.com/DaFuqtor/wifi-pass) - QR encode, copy or just get the password of current Wi-Fi connection



    ```powershell

    $ wifi-pass

      Keychain prompt --> Get password for "fqtr_iPhoneSE"

    bigBlackCharge129

    $ wifi-pass -c Bobrokot

      Keychain prompt --> Copy password for "Bobrokot"

    Password copied to clipboard

    ```

  - With [qrencode](#packages) package installed, you can extend the `wifi-pass` tool to make a QR code that can be scanned using a mobile phone to join your network



- [lyrics-cli](https://github.com/leejefon/lyrics-cli) - Search song lyrics on command line



- [mackup](//github.com/lra/mackup) - Wonderful configuration and preferences backuper



- [barhide](//github.com/DaFuqtor/barhide) - Hide unwanted icons from your menu bar

I already have hidden:

  - Spotlight Search — because it has a shortcut and needs keyboard anyway

  - Magnet — don't need to use it often, so it's comfortable to drag windows to the corners for Magnet to stick them

  - Notification Center (SystemUIServer) — prefer swiping left from the right edge with two fingers



### Profiling functions



> Use this to quickly enable new settings you get on the web



```bash

profile() {

    open .bash_profile

}

reload() {

    . .bash_profile

}

```



### Printing



#### Clear Print Queue



```bash

cancel -a -

```



#### Quit Printer App After Print Jobs Complete



```powershell

defaults write com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs "Quit When Finished" -bool true

```



## System



#### Use sudo with Touch ID



edit `/etc/pam.d/sudo` and add the following line to the top:



```

auth sufficient pam_tid.so

```



you may also use the following command to do so:



```

sudo sh -c -- 'filename="sudo" && file="/etc/pam.d/$filename" && echo "auth sufficient pam_tid.so" | cat - $file > /tmp/$filename.tmp && mv /tmp/$filename.tmp $file'

```



#### Set Login Window text



```powershell

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText "Can't touch this..."

```



### What I've done with Dock



### Highlight Effect to Stacks View in macOS



```powershell

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilite-stack -int 1 && killall Dock

```



#### Dock autohiding



```powershell

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -int 1 && killall Dock

```



#### Dock on the left side



```powershell

defaults write com.apple.dock orientation left && killall Dock

```



#### Dock scroll-to-open



```powershell

defaults write com.apple.dock scroll-to-open -int 1 && killall Dock

```



#### Speeding up Dock showing & hiding



```powershell

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0.7 && killall Dock

```



```powershell

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0.05 && killall Dock

```



#### Speeding up playback when resizing windows (Apple applications)



```powershell

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime -float 0.05

```



#### Speeding up Quick Look animation



```powershell

defaults write -g QLPanelAnimationDuration -float 0.1

```



### Safari



#### Disable default page rendering delay



> dfq is that supposed to mean? Entered this just in case.



```powershell

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay 0.25

```



#### Faster keyboard actuation



> Still not sure about the way it's working (and if it's even working)



```powershell

defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 0

```



##### To return initial settings:



just replace `defaults write` by `defaults delete`



## Quick Tips



### Shorthand searching in Spotlight

> Abbreviations



- If you have an app called e.g. Visual Studio Code, typing its abbreviation — "vsc" — is sufficient for Spotlight to direct you to it. Same with camelCased app names.



### Allow last installed app from unidentified developer



```powershell

sudo spctl --add /Applications/$(ls -lt /Applications/ | head -2 | grep .app | cut -d':' -f2 | sed 's/[0-9]*//g' | sed -e 's/^[ \t]*//')

```



---



If you're still wondering dfq for I created this repo — I want to be able to fuck my MacBook on the floor right now, buy a new one and return all my settings, a little remembering how and why they are needed.