After an exchange with @Bmosbacker I had to go count:
// From SetApp in rough order of use
Spark Mail
Bartender
HoudahSpot
Session
Gitfox
BusyCal
Supercharge
CleanShot X
Forecast Bar
PopClip
BoltAl
GetAPl
Timing
Proxyman
Permute
Paper
MindNode Classic
// Every day
Alfred 5
ForkLift
Obsidian
OmniFocus
Keynote
Insta360 Link Controller
Drafts
Grammarly Desktop
Reminders
DEVONthink
1Password
Microsoft Excel
GitHub Desktop
Zed
BetterTouchTool
Beyond Compare
Zoom
Cotypist
Microsoft Edge
Downie 4
Jettison
Dropbox
Default Folder X
Surfed
LM Studio
Carbon Copy Cloner
MacWhisper
Hazel
AltTab
Keyboard Maestro
// Less often
JetBrains IntelliJ
MarkEdit
GrandPerspective
42 PCalc
ScreenFlow
BBEdit
VLC
Docker
Visual Studio Code
Spotify
Microsoft PowerPoint
Adobe Lightroom
IVPN
Xcode
AnyList
Script Debugger
NetNewsWire
Backblaze
Croissant
Kagi for Safari
Yes I have 3 development environments: Zed, JetBrains IntelliJ and VSCode. I would love to settle on Zed - but it doesn’t have refactoring and other key tools built in yet. In addition sometimes the JetBrains LLM is better behaved. Why two GIt tools? Sometimes you need a better diff tool and Github doesn’t allow for external difftools.
Also I use a few web apps like Reader, that didn’t make into my list.
I think my total is 67, there are enough there that I might have miscounted. Good news, this exercise helped me delete a few apps.
I posted this on another thread, which may have led to this new topic, so I’m reposting here. Not counting utilities like Files, Preview, Calculator, and the like:
DTTG
Kindle
Logos
Journal
Photos
Numbers
Keynote
Freeform
Claude
Zotero
Ulysses
Pages
Notes
Messages
Safari
Reminders
Calendar
Mail
Eighteen apps.
I will occasionally need to open a Word or Excel document, and sometimes a Google Doc or Sheet, but only if someone creates them and I need to open them. I never create Word or Excel documents at this point and very rarely a Google Doc or Sheet.
I do 98% +/- of all my work with the apps showing on the doc.
I share your feelings about Zed. Love the editor and cannot wait for it to be convenient enough to be my only IDE. I also use the same three IDEs for Python in my case.
Generally speaking I do not really see an issue with the number of applications you use. A few of them are more like services. Any carpenter or similar would have a toolbox and not settle for only type of hammer. But it makes sense to check out which tools you do not need from time to time and uninstall them. I love uninstalling apps.
@svsmailus You only need a good text editor like vim in addition . Vim (emulation) is the only divine truth .
Oh, I have a lot of apps. Whether I use them or not is the question. Every now and then I’ll be at my wit’s end trying to get something or other done on my Mac, and I’ll realize that I do in fact have an app for that languishing unused in my Applications folder.
I had a proper app cleanout when I moved to my current MacBook Pro 10 months ago. Not counting Standard Apple apps, site-specific browser apps and Safari extentions, 154 apps. My mind map that I used to populate this Mac has 76 apps listed to install. Around 50 of those get used pretty regularly.
Maybe four sides? I like vi emulation in IDEs but find things like Neovim too much of a hassle? Would that make me a vi heretic and an emacs apostate? Would that not offend both sides?
I love how Zed approaches things. They make most things keyboard navigable and thought through. One of their best things is the subtle mode for AI suggestions: press option when you want it but get LSP suggestions otherwise. It is still not at 1.0 but still their thinking feels much like a keyboard driven spiritual heir to vi/emacs.
Fair sentiment. I personally enjoy modes because they allow me to use the letter keys during code navigation and reading (which I do way more than writing code). But that might be more feeling smart and productive than actually accelerating my work.
After I got hooked to vim (mode), I tried to go back to normal modeless editing because modal editing seemed superfluous. Felt like exchanging my surgical scalpel for a pointy stone while pressing modifiers constantly.
You could forgo many of those apps with BetterTouchTool. it’s very powerful. Check their floating views.
And, for many utilities which I use like once a week, I mostly ask AI to write me a python/JS/Apple script and put that in Alfred or BetterTouchTool and I’m done. avoid the hassle of managing/installing/buying apps for no reason. people will be surprised how good AI is for writing these small scripts.
Seems like going forward, VS Code forks are becoming the norm. As much as I like intellij and their IDEs, they were too late to the AI IDE game. Cursor, Windsurf and Claude Code (with VS Code extension) are eating the market share.
Use Alfred workflow to remove Downie
Use VS Code extension for github desktop, beyond compare, etc.
use browser version for Zoom and Spotify. These are are sneaks AF and they listen/read and ask for so much of your data and send telemetry back. In browser version, once you close the tab…they can’t do that
They are good apps. I suspect you would still get a good 2 years of use out of them. Just be sure to make sure your work is also saved in a non proprietary format. I would also be wary of upgrading them past their current version in case Canva add stuff you might not want, like a nag screen to their new version.
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