๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Awesome Tools for MacOS & Windows

A curated list of useful tools for development, productivity, and entertainment on MacOS and Windows. This guide covers terminal customization, package management, media players, Python/Node.js environment management, and more.


๐ŸŽ MacOS

Terminal Customization

Enhance your MacOS Terminal with a custom theme:

  1. Download the theme file
  2. Import it into the Terminal App via Preferences > Profiles > Import.

Tip: Try iTerm2 for advanced features like split panes, search, and better color support.

Homebrew

The Missing Package Manager for macOS (or Linux)

Homebrew makes installing and managing software on MacOS effortless.

Common Homebrew commands:

brew search <name>        # Search for packages
brew info <package>       # Show package details
brew install <package>    # Install a package
brew update               # Update Homebrew
brew upgrade              # Upgrade installed packages
brew list                 # List installed packages, alias brew ls
brew uninstall <package>  # Remove a package, alias brew remove/rm

Tip: Use brew doctor to troubleshoot issues and brew autoremove, brew cleanup to free up disk space.

Oh My Zsh

A delightful, open source, community-driven framework for managing your Zsh configuration.

Oh My Zsh Theme Customization

  1. Download the custom theme
  2. Place it in $HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom/themes
  3. Set ZSH_THEME="rick" in your $HOME/.zshrc

Tip: If you use Miniconda, try this theme and set ZSH_THEME="rick-conda".

Explore more themes and plugins at Oh My Zsh.

IINA

A modern, open-source video player for macOS with a beautiful interface and wide format support.

The Unarchiver

Powerful archive extraction tool supporting many formats beyond the native Mac utility.

Tip: Use Keka for advanced compression and extraction.


๐ŸŸฉ Node.js Environment

fnm

๐Ÿš€ Fast and simple Node.js version manager, built in Rust.

Install with Homebrew:

brew install fnm

Enable automatic version switching:
Add to your $HOME/.zshrc:

eval "$(fnm env --use-on-cd)"

See all commands and usage

Tip: Use Corepack to manage package manager versions (yarn, pnpm) across projects.


๐Ÿ Python Environment

Virtual Environment

Create and manage isolated Python environments:

python3 -m venv .venv     # Create a virtual environment in .venv
source .venv/bin/activate # Activate the environment
deactivate                # Deactivate when done

Poetry

Modern Python dependency management and packaging tool with lockfile support.

Install Poetry:

curl -sSL https://install.python-poetry.org | python3 -

Extremely fast Python package and project manager, written in Rust.

Tip: Use uv venv and uv pip for blazing-fast installs.

Jupyter Notebook

Recommended online notebook:
Google Colab

Run shell commands in a notebook:

  • With leading !:

    !python -V
  • With %%bash cell magic:

    %%bash
    python -V

Tip: Try JupyterLab for a more powerful notebook interface.


๐ŸชŸ Windows

Windows Terminal

Modern terminal with tabs, themes, and customization.

Features:
Split panes, GPU-accelerated rendering, Unicode support, custom key bindings, and JSON-based configuration.

Development Environment Setup

  1. Enable script execution: Settings > System > Developer > PowerShell > Scripts Policy.

  2. Install oh-my-posh from Microsoft Store.

  3. Install posh-git.

  4. Edit your PowerShell profile (code $PROFILE) and add:

    oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\huvix.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
    Import-Module posh-git
     
    clear # clear terminal output

    More themes: Oh My Posh Themes

Tip: Use Windows Package Manager (WinGet) for easy software installation.

Tip: WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is highly recommended. Install WSL

Microsoft PowerToys

A set of utilities for power users to tune and streamline their Windows experience for greater productivity.

Popular PowerToys modules:
PowerToys Run (quick launcher), Color Picker, Keyboard Manager.

For more details and advanced tips, see the official documentation for each tool.