List of open source applications for macOS (opens in new tab)

Thank you very much for sharing. Using almost all of the tools you mention myself[^1]. But you give lots of new inspiration. And mention many new tools that I will explore.

Funny that today I started using SublimeText again for the exact same purpose you describe: Creating a wiki / knowledge base that is text based (markdown FTW), editing those markdown files, quickly jumping to files within nested folders (via Cmd+P = Goto anywhere). Was searching an alternative to `Quiver App` or `Dash App` to create a code snippet database / repository.

After I started using `iA Writer` for writing markdown, I realized how much better it is to move away from Evernote, Quiver or other proprietary writing apps to markdown (=plaintext) + folders. A little research later I narrowed down to: Emacs+Orgmode+Terminal or Vim+FZF+Ripgrep+Terminal. I realized that SublimeText gives me all the Ripgrep+FZF capabilities, and a decent markdown editor. (Still I love and use `iA Writer` for non-technical writing and SublimeText for all else.)

[^1]: Karabiner Elements, Alfred App, Keyboard Maestro and many more.

OMG, I skimmed over your mappings and macros.

The keyboard maestro and karabiner folks need to hire you to help them market their tools.

I thought I was pretty good with karabiner and KM. You... are a true power user!

> All the apps are in one desktop because there is delay in switching between macOS multiple desktops.

Huh, this is a weird one for me.

I believe there is a Terminal command to shorten the animation time which I've used, but other than that it would take more time for me to cycle through so many windows to find the one I want, than to just lay out task specific desktops and switch between them with Ctrl+Left/Right.

Not only that but I already am at a limit where I have so many windows in one of those (several Firefox windows, each with many tabs of stuff to read) where all of the windows become sluggish unless I move the one I'm trying to use to a less crowded desktop.

Did you do something to avoid this slowdown? How do you efficiently move between all those applications in a single desktop?

Wow! I'm definitely going to take some inspiration from this. IMO, this should've been the submission since it felt a lot more readable to me than the other list.

With the other list I got bored quite quick, but with this one I was able to read it for a lot longer. This was mostly due to the screenshots and the explanations of how you use it.

What do you do if you lose your data and have to start over? As far as I know, there is no way to automate the settings of all of these macOS apps that don't have config files that can be backed up like VSCode. Do you use Time Machine?

Great list!

Found a couple of gems that I didn't know existed.

Another shout-out for Karabiner. It's amazing.

I was using Linux primarily, but recently switched fully to MacOS. With an IBM Model-M keyboard (old-school, missing the Apple/Window keys), I wouldn't be able to live without Karabiner.

you can live/work without a clipboard manager :O ?!

Yet when I look it's mostly buggy, poorly supported and half finished.

That’s funny, every time I come across some piece of unsupported free software, I can usually find a $30 paid alternative that looks better, probably runs better, and someone will answer my questions about it, no matter how stupid they might be.

freeware and people like you have killed indie development. Great software should be paid for. Unless or cures cancer or solves humanity’s issues, it should not he made available for free. Otherwise the author of a paid version is forced into office jobs because some idiot makes a free clone just to have something on their cv.

I’ll pay you $30 if you point to me a free open source alternative to Sketch that works better. /s if that isn’t obvious.

P.S. As a non-designer who’d like to use Sketch maybe once every two to three months, the price is pretty steep.

part of the reason for this is it costs money to distribute apps for apple devices. $100 a year and xcode (ie mac hardware) at a minimum.

The arch wiki has a great list here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/list_of_applications

You could also use the graphical interface to the said package manager.

On Ubuntu for example, the Ubuntu software center has sections for editors picks and recommended applications for audio/video/gaming/productivity/...

(Not all open source thought)

A bit off topic, but why can't you just use the Music app? It plays local MP3s just fine.

Technically, it is Open Source, in the sense that the source code is available to the public.

It is not, however, free software [0]. It also probably fails the official Open Source Definition [1].

[0]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html [1]: https://opensource.org/osd-annotated