It looks like I've linked you here myself. Linking people to a blogpost I wrote is often a bit akward, especially at work.
I likely shared this blog in an attempt to further a conversation. Usually the post does a better job at succinctly sharing information than I could by talking.
In any case, I hope me sharing this post doesn't come across as humblebragging, that's really the opposite of what I'm trying to achieve.
Thanks for reading!
In no particular order.
I’ve tried many different note-taking tools over the years, but since late 2018 I’m a Notion convert. I’ve written a blog post on how Notion has become my *digital brain. Things I like the most: cross-platform support (incl. web and mobile) with cloud synching, block-based editing with support for a wide-variety of block-types, frequent releases with new features.
iTerm2 is a widely popular replacement for macOS Terminal with a large feature-set. Chances are you’re already using it if you’re reading this :-)
Super-fast replacement for grep with sane defaults. Must-have.
Bat - A modern cat clone with line syntax highlighting, line numbering and more. Highly recommend to set alias cat=’bat’.
fd is a simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find with sensible (opinionated) defaults for most use cases. Highly recommend to set alias find=’fd’.
Visual Studio Code is my go-to general purpose text editor, for both general text editing as well as coding. I find it (much) better than Sublime, BBEdit, TextWrangler or Atom. I exclusively use the Insiders Build which is generally very stable. Extension call-outs: Draw.io, Luna Paint, Remote Development Pack, vscode-icons
Cross-platform mind-mapping tool. While I don’t often use mind-mapping tools, I’ve tried out quite a few mindmapping tools over the years, and settled on Simplemind because its cloud-synching and cross platform support, its rich feature-set and the fact that it’s actively maintained.
General purpose command-line fuzzy finder. I used it primarily as much better replacement for bash’s default history search feature (i.e. CTRL+R).
Much improved diff tool. Especially useful in combination with git.
From the jq website: “jq is like sed for JSON data - you can use it to slice and filter and map and transform structured data with the same ease that sed, awk, grep and friends let you play with text.”
Clipboard manager for mac. Does the job, nothing fancy. I still think there is room for a more developer-oriented clipboard app (I’ve played with the idea of building one before).
Powerful customization tool for your mac’s TouchBar - so you can make it actually useful 😎. Also allows for easy customization of keyboard shortcuts, mouse gestures and much more.
Cross-platform password manager with large feature-set. I was a fairly early adopter, and after using it for about 10 years on a daily basis, I’m still a happy user.
Database IDE that can connect to many different database backends.
Utility app that allows you to snap windows into organized tiles - similar to how window snapping works on Windows. Useful to put screens next to each-other.
Menu tray icon organizer - very useful to de-clutter your tray menu.
Better menu bar clock with calendar and time zones.
Drop-in replacement for SSH that deals with intermittent server connectivity. Gone are the annoying typing delays when SSHing to a server over WAN or a spotty internet connection.
Tiny program that helps you to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep or starting a screensaver.
Screenshot capture and annotation tool - use it multiple times a day. Pricey, but worth it for me. I’ve used Skitch and Annotate in the past but moved to Cleanshot since both Annotate and Skitch are no longer actively maintained (for mac).
Automatically closes inactive tabs and makes it easy to get them back. Life-saver to keep your browser window somewhat clean (and computer fast!). Exists for both Firefox and Chrome.
After using Google Chrome since v1.0 (back in 2008!), I’ve recently switched back to Firefox. It feels faster, more private and better for power-users. It’s good to be back.
A browser extension I adopted more recently that allows me to send traffic to different web proxies based of URL patterns. I use this to seperate out my personal traffic from work traffic.
Cross-platform multi-factor authenticator app that is a drop-in replacement for Google Authenticator.