I am a Mac user and a developer, so this is likely the most useful of the student lists. Not all of this software is free or open source, but it is where possible. I do support paid software as I want my own software (and yours) to be worth something.
Please also consider my General Student Recommendations for non*technical thoughts.
Making MacOS "nice"
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Control your window sizes and locations with key bindings
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Shrink the ever growing list of menubar apps
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This is especially helpful if you are on a laptop with a webcam notch
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Install and manage packages on your mac
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Great for updating core MacOS utilities that are kept back several versions
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Best way to install most open source utilities
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Can manage GUI applications with its
--caskfunctionality too
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I highly recommend replacing the built in MacOS terminal program!
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At the moment, this is my terminal emulator of choice. It is free for local terminal emulation.
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Keep the terminal in your dock and use it often.
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Ditch Dropbox/Drive/whatever. Sync between your machines
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Keep your machines connected privately wherever they are
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Text Editing
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You get a student license of their IDEs for free
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I tend to install Goland, IntelliJ, PyCharm, and DataGrip
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You need a general purpose terminal text editor
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Install a full version with homebrew:
brew install vim(or neovim) -
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For some ideas on how to customize
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WARNING: Do not copy this file directly as your own. You will have a real bad time.
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I keep a markdown "wiki" as notes for all purposes
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Syncs between iOS devices so your notes are everywhere
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This document was written with it!
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Alternative: Obsidian
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Web Browsers
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Safari is actually quite nice, but you probably want some extras
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An ad blocker: AdGuard these days
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DarkReader: I use dark mode and want my websites to as well
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I keep a copy of Ungoogled Chromium and Firefox around for web development
2024-05-22 by u/cws