First time macOS user, what are the essential apps?

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Maccy for clipboard history management via simple shortcuts
Stats for useful system metrics in the menubar
LM Studio for easily exploring open source Large Language Models
NoTunes to get rid of Apple Music launching when you connect your headphones
Bitwarden for multi-platform password management
Rectangle for keyboard-based window management
Homebrew if you're a developer/sysadmin/command line user
Fluent Reader to subscribe to RSS feeds
- You need a separate app to prevent Apple Music from opening?
  
  I don't know about him, but I have my first mac (from work) for two months and I never had Apple Music open when I plugged my headphones in.

Rectangle for window snapping is a life saver!
- Lack of window snapping is my number one reason I cannot stand MacOS as a working environment. The fact that the only solution is a third party app is infuriating.
  
  You make it sound like a constant pain, I just installed one of the dozens third party apps available and never thought about it again. It’s really not a problem
  
  I'm curious. What workflow do you have that requires window snapping? I'm asking because I have no use for window snapping and I'm trying to understand why people require it.

IINA is like VLC but with a nicer interface.
brew is a CLI package manager.
OpenEmu is a great console emulation platform (like retroarch, but with a way better interface that’s designed for a desktop instead of a TV).

AltTab: Windows alt-tab on macOS
Rectangle: Keyboard based window management.
Linear Mouse: Per-device settings for Mouse, Track Pad, etc. Things like pointer super, scroll direction, and mouse acceleration.
- I never knew about Linear Mouse, thank you so much!!! I fucking hate how Apple ties scroll direction on mice/touchpad and no, "natural" scroll direction is not natural on a standard mouse Apple.
  
  No problem! Glad I could help someone. I was so happy when I found it so I'm glad it can help others.
- What does AltTap do better than the build in cmd+tap?
  
  Just a preference thing since it makes it more like how Windows and some Linux distros do window management.
  Hitting Alt + Tab brings up a preview of all windows that you have open with the ability to scroll / tab through them.
  Hitting Alt + ` while focused on a certain application shows a preview image of each window for that application that you have open.
  I personally like it more than the OSX default but to each their own.
- Never knew about Linear Mouse 😱 thank you! does it work with logitech stuff? So i can finally get rid of their shitty software
  
  I'm using it and a Logitech G502 but I haven't played around to see what things it can and cannot do compared to Logitech's own software. On Linux I use Piper to manage my mouse with a closer parity to Logitech's actual software.
- These are amazing thank you!

I’m lost without magnet.
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/magnet/id441258766?mt=12
- Why not use Rectangle? While Magnet looks like it probably does a lot more and has more customization I'm having a hard time seeing the difference to make it worth that price vs. free. Can you explain your thoughts? 🙂
  
  I wasn’t aware of the alternative and having brought years ago kind of forgotten about the cost. It just follows me around.
- Big upvote for Magnet! I just wish it were possible to move windows between desktops 🥲

Raycast is like alfred but free.
- How is it with extensions? I like the workflows with Alfred, I currently use metrics/currency conversion, speedtest, adding notes to Fantastical, those are some that come in top of my mind right now.
  
  It’s pretty good on the extensions front. Lots of options. However like a lot of free software, it comes with privacy drawbacks. They share usage statistics with advertisers, it creeps me out.

CleanShot X is great for screenshots and screen recordings, and markup of them.
https://cleanshot.com/
- What can it do that macos built-in screenshots and preview can't do?
  
  I think the main thing I like is that it fits so seamlessly within my workflow. I can customize the functions I use to happen the way I want them to.
  It has the same functions as the default app:
  ability to take screenshots of all or part of a screen (with/without timer)
  ability to take a screen recording of all or part of a screen (with/without a timer)
  But it also provides options for:
  adding simple markup to your screenshot (lines/arrows/text/squares etc). As a developer, I often want to take a screenshot and add a bit of text or an arrow to highlight something to someone I'm trying to explain something to
  ability to do scrolling screen captures
  recording in MP4
  trimming screen recording videos
  removing or including audio in screen recording videos
  recording animated GIFs instead of video
  reducing resolution (for filesize) after capture
  hide desktop icons during screen capture
  change/hide desktop background wallpaper during capture
  options to customize shortcut keys for various operations, or customize workflow (for example I like screenshots to be automatically added to my clipboard after capture or markup so I can immediately paste in whatever chat I'm having with colleagues)
  options for keeping a history of screenshots/recordings
  options (I don't use) for cloud share/storage

I would recommend SnazzyQ’s videos on macOS essentials:
https://youtu.be/h2xoRkzjQoc

Homebrew
Alfred
Amethyst
Kitty or iterm2
A web browser that doesn't suck (I recommend librewolf or Firefox)
A text editor that doesn't suck (I recommend NeoVim, vim, or vscodium)
- Forklift. You're all welcome
- For terminal wezterm is also awesome.

Amphetamine - Keeps your Mac awake if you need to.
- Like Caffeine on Linux. Sweet!

Honestly very little. Mac already has a lot of functionality built in. I have only specialized programs for my workflows and not much else.

Witch - Brings Alt + Tab functionally to MacOS
Scroll Reverser - Lets you adjust the scroll direction on a per-input device level. The OS, by default, only has a single global preference. This lets me reverse my trackpad two finger scrolling without messing with my mouse setting, which gets everything moving as my muscle memory expects.
Speaking of mussel memory, this isn’t an app, but a System Preference suggestion. If you’ve got Windows style keyboard shortcuts, like Ctrl + C to copy, stuck in your head, you can go into Apple Menu > System Preferences, Keyboard, then click on the Modifier Keys button in the bottom right. Here, you can swap the command, control, and option keys around to move the functionality over to your expected key. I did Control key: Command, Option key: Control, and Command Key: Option so I can continue to do Left Modifier Key + C to copy.

If you need a gui text editor, BBEdit is pretty good.
Others that I haven't seen suggested and that I personally use daily:
KeepingYouAwake prevents the laptop to going to sleep (although there are tons of other ways to do it).
Raivo OTP if you have an iPhone with Raivo installed it copies the TOTP to the mac clipboard
Lulu as firewall for outgoing connections
Honestly, Alfred, Rectangle, AltTab and CleanshotX are almost essential, IMHO.
- What's the general consensus on Lulu? Can anyone else chime in?
  
  I love it and it’s one of the first things installed when I get a new Mac. All of apps by Objective-See are great!

I highly recommend Marta as an alternative dual pane file explorer. Capable macOS alternative to Total Commander; https://marta.sh/

Keyboard maestro

Homebrew, Iterm2, Keka, Menumeters/btop, newsboat/Vienna for rss, Keepass, Veracrypt, Sublime.
Learn keyboard shortcuts like
cmd+~ to cycle through different windows of a same appln
cmd+c and cmd+opt+v for cut and paste
cmd+mouse click on a folder opens it in a new tab
cmd+shift+4 for screenshot tool and change the settings to copy the screenshot to clipboard.
Cmd+space - spotlight. Hide folders if you only want it to open apps
One more thing switch doc type to plan text in TextEdit app to use it as Windows Notepad.
- I rebound cmd+~ to option+tab, because tilde is in a weird place on my Apple keyboard's locale. Easier to remember as well.
- Thanks for the tip, I still find it weird we (or at least me) had to install many of this many tweaks for basic QoL features. And there's no autoscroll support is a big meh :(
  
  Honestly most of the tools suggested in this thread not really needed. The built-in tools and shortcuts can do the job for many but the third-party tools always provide more options in every OS. For example I cannot use Windows for work without notepad++, 7zip, WSL, SSH/SCP tools etc.

Top Notch - https://topnotch.app/
Apparently you need a third party app to switch the color of the menu bar to black so that you can hide the stupid notch.

BetterTouchTool

Little Snitch, awesome Mac GUI firewall. UltraEdit if you code, multi platform app. A secondary browser, Safari is not enough.
Edit: forgot something for file collections; DupeGuru. FOSS, multi platform, and did I mention free?

Top Notch - https://topnotch.app/
Apparently you need a third party app to switch the color of the menu bar to black so that you can hide the stupid notch.

Rectangle for window tiling, MOS to reverse the mouse/trackpad scroll direction pairing, and brew to install everything else.

Windows 10

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