

Ask HN: OS X first-timer - kompott

Hi there, after avoiding the hype for many years, i picked up my first computer with OSX yesterday: a 13&quot; Retina MBP.<p>For the past 10 years i have been mostly using Linux (and a bit of Windows 7...) for my daily job: Python dev, some Frontend dev (HTML&#x2F;CSS&#x2F;JS), a bit of Photoshop and a bit of Ruby&#x2F;Rails and PHP from time to time.<p>I already installed most of my must-have cli tools via homebrew.<p>What i seek now are some other developer-oriented guides to get me up to speed with OSX. What else to i need to know? Any hints, must-haves, best practices? I know this is a very broad question, but any input is appreciated.
======
sjs382
The apps I use on a daily basis:

    
    
      * Ghostnote (created by a HN user)
      * Sequel Pro (Managing MySQL databases. Which Postgres has an app that was this good)
      * Sublime Text
      * SourceTree
      * Chrome & Chrome Canary
      * Filezilla (hate this app for FTP, but I find it strange to pay for something like a FTP client.
      * Airmail
      * iTerm
      * Photoshop
      * Keka (Zip & other archive formats)
      * Sunrise Calendar

~~~
ThomPete
Hey

Happy to see Ghotnote on this list. If you want to be a beta tester for our
new version let me know.

Also if you are using iTerm you can add ghostnote support manually before the
update comes out (finishing touches)

I just posted this blog post today

[http://www.ghostnoteapp.com/blog/how-to-manually-add-new-
doc...](http://www.ghostnoteapp.com/blog/how-to-manually-add-new-document-
support-to-ghostnote/)

~~~
sjs382
I think I've bugged you plenty on IRC. :)

------
danielisz
Welcome in the club!

People mentioned: iTerm2 and SourceTree, these are indeed very good. I want to
recommend a few must have editors: \- Espresso, highly recommended for web
development ([http://macrabbit.com/espresso/](http://macrabbit.com/espresso/)
$75) \- TextWrangler, very slick editor for all well known programming
languages([https://itunes.apple.com/hu/app/textwrangler/id404010395?mt=...](https://itunes.apple.com/hu/app/textwrangler/id404010395?mt=12),
free)

Something else: www.macports.org - it is like FreeBSD ports, you can install
vi, mc, nmap and almost any application ported from Linux/BSD

------
schappim
It would be amiss not to mention:

\- Brew ([http://brew.sh/](http://brew.sh/)) - The missing package manager for
OS X

\- Alfred App ([http://www.alfredapp.com/](http://www.alfredapp.com/)) - that
lets you be more productive with hotkeys, keywords and file actions at your
fingertips.

\- Sublime Text ([http://www.sublimetext.com/](http://www.sublimetext.com/)) -
a sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose.

\- Navicat ([http://www.navicat.com/](http://www.navicat.com/)) - a GUI for
various databases.

------
eivarv
I don't really know if there is a good way to get up to speed with the OS,
other than just using it. Familiarity will come with experience; At least I've
always found that the best way to get familiarized with a new OS (or any
software) is to acknowledge that I will probably not be as effective during
the inevitable period of adjustment, and try to perform tasks that I knew how
to perform with the preceding tool.

Here is a short list of various software on my mac I find very useful:

\- AppCleaner
([http://www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/](http://www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/)):
Removes files and preferences associated with applications you wish to
uninstall.

\- Amethyst
([https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst](https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst)): The
only fully functional dynamic tiling window manager I've found that works well
under OS X.

\- f.lux ([https://justgetflux.com](https://justgetflux.com)): Change display
color temperature according to time of day.

\- Moom ([http://manytricks.com/moom/](http://manytricks.com/moom/)) [or
Divvy/SizeUp/...]: Manage, move and resize window with keyboard.

\- Menumate ([http://zipzapmac.com/menumate](http://zipzapmac.com/menumate)):
Trigger menu bar with hotkey.

\- Shortcat ([https://shortcatapp.com](https://shortcatapp.com)): Goto
anything on the screen via keyboard, sort of a fuzzy finder for the UI,

\- iTerm2 ([http://iterm2.com](http://iterm2.com)): Alternative terminal
emulator.

\- MAMP ([http://www.mamp.info/en/](http://www.mamp.info/en/) Apache, MySQL
and PHP stack.

\- Coda ([https://panic.com/coda/](https://panic.com/coda/)): Very nice
editor, particularly for frontend webdev, as it includes page preview
functionality, as well as some other tools. Alternatively, your editor of
choice.

\- Cakebrew ([https://www.cakebrew.com](https://www.cakebrew.com)): GUI for
homebrew.

You should also check out brew cask
([http://caskroom.io](http://caskroom.io)), which enables you to install
binaries via homebrew.

P.S. As your question is very broad indeed, I think you might get more
responses if you asked a few narrower questions or described some specific
problem.

~~~
kishansundar
Docker [https://docs.docker.com/](https://docs.docker.com/) Vagrant
[https://www.vagrantup.com/](https://www.vagrantup.com/) Sketch
[http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/](http://bohemiancoding.com/sketch/) Ampps
[http://www.ampps.com/](http://www.ampps.com/)

