• Change the Trackpad plists to allow <i>both</i> two-finger tap, and bottom-right click. Apple took away the option to set this from the GUI in Lion, for some reason.<p><a href="http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/105705/50905" rel="nofollow">http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/105705/50905</a><p>• Add "System Files" and "File Visibility" to the list of Spotlight options<p>• Install "EasyFind.app" so I'm not at the mercy of my Spotlight db (as useful as Spotlight can sometimes be)<p>• Install Services like "WordService for Mac" to alphabetize text, or convert text encodings<p>• Install my own services to do things like "chmod +x" or "copy file contents as base64" or "copy path to this file as text" (I'd die without this) from the GUI<p>• Set "System Preferences > Keyboard" to "All controls" to uncripple key commands<p>• Install "KeyRemap4MacBook" and enable Fn+J/K/L/I as cursor keys<p>• Install "Display Rotation Menu" menulet to switch between portrait/landscape<p>• Install "SizeUp" to move/resize windows<p>• Change the Finder setting to allow text selection in Quick Look previews:<p>"defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE"<p>• create a softlink to my "~/Library/" named "~/Library /" (or alternately just chflags nohidden)
Right now there's a few essentials for my Air:<p>- PCKeyboardHack <a href="https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/pckeyboardhack.html.en" rel="nofollow">https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/pckeyboardhack.html...</a> to map CapsLock to Escape<p>- KeyRemap4MacBook <a href="https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/" rel="nofollow">https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/</a> to map Fn to Ctrl<p>- Spectacle <a href="http://spectacleapp.com/" rel="nofollow">http://spectacleapp.com/</a> to resize windows with the keyboard<p>- Caffeine <a href="http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/" rel="nofollow">http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/</a> to easily toggle the screen's sleep setting<p>- The Unarchiver <a href="http://unarchiver.c3.cx/unarchiver" rel="nofollow">http://unarchiver.c3.cx/unarchiver</a> handles tons of file formats
f.lux <a href="http://justgetflux.com/" rel="nofollow">http://justgetflux.com/</a><p>As much a brain hack as a Mac hack. #1 recommendation.
When I install a new system, I always go through these steps in no particular order:<p>* change the appearance and the contrast color from "blue" to "graphite"<p>* disable the zoom effect and enable automatic hiding of the dock<p>* limit Spotlight's scope<p>* increase the speed of the mouse<p>* install Perian<p>* install Secrets<p>* install Slate<p>* install ClipMenu<p>* install QuickSilver<p>* install QuickCursor<p>* install MacPorts (and the required XCode)<p>* install Subversion, Git and Mercurial<p>* install a bunch of CLI utilities like cdargs or tmux<p>* install MacVim and clone my config
I'd recommend <a href="http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/" rel="nofollow">http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/</a> (the easiest way to run windows app on mac)
The first time I installed it was because I couldn't find a tool like total commander (<a href="http://www.ghisler.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ghisler.com/</a>) for mac, so I will add that to my list total commander :D<p>The rest really depends on what you will do with it.
My required installs:<p>* f.lux
* Divvy (resize windows on the fly)
* TotalTerminal (a visor-style thing for using the terminal)
* Alfred 2 (a Spotlight replacement - I used to use Quicksilver, but it's no longer actively developed)
I have a MBPR.
- I used QuickRes2 to switch to a much higher resolution 1920x1680 which is not possible otherwise.
- Wrote a script to download the beautiful bing.com backgrounds for use as wallpapers
Install:<p>* Homebrew<p>* Caffeine and NoSleep<p>* SetResX for Retina displays (lets you deretinafy and use native resolution)<p>* KeyRemap4MacBook to swap () and [] (but I might be weird)<p>* iTerm2
you can find some tips and tricks on Apple Stackexchange: <a href="http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/400/24026" rel="nofollow">http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/400/24026</a>