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Ask HN: What are your must-have apps/software?

10 points by dannyphantom ↗ HN
Curious to hear what some of you keep as your personal 'suite of {things}' that has become a must-have for your devices.

I've begun to accept that my own methods of avoiding apps/software in favor of self-reliance has gotten incredibly convoluted at this point. As in, just last week is when I finally downloaded SysinternalsSuite and some other misc. manufacturer-software programs - they've actually been really convenient. A bad experience with a fake software in undergrad really turned me off but I'd like to join the 'real world' again.

15 comments

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kleer001
I'm the opposite of what you're asking.

I've been trained by dozens of years on dozens of systems to accept the BS that's built in as much as possible. The only thing I carry is my data (on dropbox, I know) and my begrudging ability to jump through arbitrary hoops and guardrails that someone somewhere somehow thought were helpful.

TooSmugToFail
I’m on Mac, and I find Obsidian and Raycast to be two of my probably most used apps. Little Snitch is useful, and so is occasionally Numi.
KomoD
Solaar, 1Password, Autokey
sandwichbop
right now it's chrome, vscode, python, intellij, homebrew, and whatever C/C++ toolchain is on the system so for me rn is Xcode. I warn that my must-have change very often, I can't stand digital clutter and I often factory reset my machines and change devices often (this week I been mostly on my mac mini but the past month I was on an ubuntu machine and a chromebook) so if it takes too long to setup I don't bother with again.
rochak
I’m on Mac and use Alfred, Swish, Contexts, iTerm2, ItsyCal, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk.
vpaulus
I don´t know either Swish or Contexts, but both looks like a window manager. Can you tell me, why do you need both? I use Spectacle, but sometimes it feels like I need some more flexible.

Edit: Nevermind, my bad. Contexts is a switcher, not a manager

rochak
Swish is for when you want to quickly organise windows using gestures. It’s the gestures that sold me on it. As for Contexts, it is only an app switcher but really useful if use multiple windows of the same application. Fast jumping between them by the name of the application or content of the title or anything else fuzzily is incredible. Do note that all of these make sense if you are a heavy keyboard user.
vpaulus
On Mac: Alfred (w/ Powerpack), Spectacle, iStat Menus, Vanilla, BeFocused, Warp And some programming related stuff, but that very depends on my job.
warrenm
on my Mac:

- browsers: Firefox, Opera, Waterfox, Chrome

- community: Discord, Slack, Telegram, Signal, Teams

- productivity: M365, the Apple apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote), Obsidian

- misc: Dropbox, Nextcloud, OneDrive

on my iPhone:

- browsers: Firefox, Chrome

- community: same as Mac

- travel: airline apps, map choices (W3W, Google, Waze...), rideshare

- shopping: Amazon, Costco, GasBuddy

- a/v: podcasts, Kindle, Pandora, Tailor, Canva

- misc: cell carrier app, Dropbox, Nextcloud, OneDrive

Probably others ... but skimming both my Dock and the app folders on my phone, these are what jump out

skydhash
Not really must-have, but I've built an ecosystem around these:

Alfred: Start point of every task.

Keyboard Maestro: Improve workflow withing apps

Rectangle: Window Management

Bartender: Cleaner menu bar

Things 3: Task Management and General Inbox for stuff

Bear: Personal Knowledge Management

Anybox: Bookmarks Management

Secrets: Password Manager

Reeder: RSS and Read-it Later

Calibre: E-Books Management

Cleanshot: Screen Capture

pinguin3
SelfControl, LeechBlock, and uBlock Origin because they are effective tools that help reduce distractions and improve productivity, as supported by various studies published in peer-reviewed journals. These tools have been found to improve academic performance, increase the ability to focus and resist temptation, reduce website clutter, and improve website usability.
umtksa
I dont know why people hate it but for me it's Clean My Mac