Software I use, gadgets I love, and other things I recommend.

I get asked a lot about the things I use to build software, stay productive, or buy to fool myself into thinking I'm being productive when I'm really just procrastinating. Here's a big list of all of my favorite stuff.

Workstation

  • 13" MacBook Air, M3 chip, 16GB RAM (2024)

    I was using an Intel-based 13" MacBook Air prior to this and the difference is night and day. I've never heard the fans turn on a single time, even under the incredibly heavy loads I put it through with our various launch simulations.

Development Tools

  • Visual Studio Code

    I've tried to switch to other editors but I always come back to VS Code. The ecosystem is just too good.

  • JetBrains IDEs

    I use IntelliJ IDEA for Java, Rider for C#, PyCharm for Python, WebStorm for JavaScript, and PhpStorm for PHP. They're all fantastic.

  • Android Studio

    Android Studio is the official IDE for Android app development. It's based on IntelliJ IDEA and comes with everything you need to build great Android apps.

  • Xcode

    No Xcode No iOS development.

  • Warp

    I'm honestly not even sure what features I get with this that aren't just part of the macOS Terminal but it's what I use.

  • httpie

    I've been looing for a good Postman-alternatives HTTP client for a while and this is the best one I've found.

  • TablePlus

    Great software for working with databases. You don't have to install many GUI clients for databases. A must have for macOS.

  • OrbStack

    OrbStack is an alternative to Docker on macOS. It's a lightweight, fast, and secure container runtime that makes it easy to build, run, and share containers. I highly recommend it.

Browsers

  • Arc

    Arc is a modern browser and great alternative to Chrome. It's based on Chromium. It's easy to use and I use it for my personal browsing.

  • Firefox Developer Edition

    I use this for all of my web development work. The dev tools are just so much better than Chrome.

Search Engines

  • DuckDuckGo

    The best search engine ever! It doesn't track you and it's great for privacy. I use it for all my browsers and highly recommend it.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • Claude AI Pro

    The best for generating code snippets, and solving errors. It has limited requests and responses compared to ChatGPT but I highly recommend it.

  • ChatGPT Plus

    The second one is ChatGPT. Everybody knows about ChatGPT. It's a great tool for generating text and code. I mostly use it for writing articles.

  • GitHub Copilot

    Last but not least, GitHub Copilot. I use it in Jetbrains IDEs and Visual Studio Code. It's a great tool for generating code snippets and writing the comments. You can ask it to generate code for you in the IDEs - No need to switch from IDEs to browsers or apps anymore.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

  • Express VPN

    The best VPN service I've used. It's fast, secure, and easy to use. The world's most trusted VPN. I use it to protect my privacy and security online.

Learn Coding

  • Laracasts

    The best place to learn Laravel and Vue.js. I've been a subscriber since the beginning and I've learned so much from Jeffrey Way.

  • Vue Mastery

    Great place to learn Vue.js. I've learned so much from Gregg Pollack, Adam Jahr and Vue.js creator "Evan You".

  • Design Code

    Great place to learn SwiftUI and React Native. I've learned so much from Meng To.