The 10ish Tools I Install on Every New Mac I Get

Published on Sep 14, 2023, filed under development. (Share this post, e.g. on Mastodon or on Bluesky.)

Piggybacking on the idea from Christian, this is the software I typically install on new Mac machines:

WebStorm (paid)—my favorite IDE which at some point replaced the for all (my) practical purposes identical IntelliJ IDEA
a few browsers (free)
GIMP (free)—my preferred image editing software ever since Photoshop went for a subscription model; acquired taste
ImageOptim (free)—convenient image compression tool; usually excluding SVGs and opting for aggressive optimization for all other formats (for automated lossless compression, I use Image Guard)
Transmit (paid)—still favorite SFTP client, using it for my shared-hosting providers (ALL-INKL, DreamHost)
Oh My Zsh (free)—useful shell configuration tooling
Node/npm (free)—wonder who in our field wouldn’t need to install it
Homebrew (free)—useful and necessary for some tooling
Xcode (free)—not actively sought (and not quite liked), but usually needed (right at the beginning even, for Git?)
BBEdit (paid)—my favorite text editor which I have constantly open on all machines, and with which I manage intake and draft documents
LibreOffice (free)—backup office suite for the few cases I need to work with local document files
Proton VPN (paid)—the VPN I trust most (conveniently included in my plan with Proton)
Little Snitch (paid)—main tool to monitor and tailor network activity
BlockBlock (free)—non-critical system installation monitoring (not sure I make effective use of it though)

(Given for how long I’ve been using most of this software, I believe this list to age better than my Android favorites—cf. Top 15 from 2009 and Top 10 from 2017.)

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day (like Google) and companies you’ve never heard of, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also with respect to politics and philosophy. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my experiences and perspectives. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, but do be critical.)