I’ve switched to the Apple ecosystem, but what software stack do I use for personal use?

I’ve got old equipment, so I can’t run Ventura yet!

Productivity

• Operating System:
  • Monterey: iMac 2015 (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) – 4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 -32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
  • Monterey: Macbook Pro 2015 (Retina, 13″) – 3.1GHz Dual-Core (4 Thread) Intel Core i7 – 16GB
    
  • iPadOS 16: iPad Pro 2021 12.9″, 256GB Storage (M1 Processor)
  • iOS 16: iPhone 12 Pro Max, 512GB Storage
• Browser: Safari (macOS and iOS)
  • Firefox has been my go-to browser for a long time. Finally, however, I’ve switched to Safari. Integration with Keychain synced with iCloud makes it easy to move from Desktop to Laptop to Phone.
  • However, Safari does seem to have an issue with WordPress blogs, so I keep a copy of firefox around for those.
• Email: Apple Mail (macOS and iOS)
  • Since Catalina, I’ve switched from using Outlook to Apple Mail, as it works seamlessly with Exchange and my mail servers (Linux with Exim).
• Calendar:
  • Apple Calendar (macOS and iOS)
  • Itsycal – A quick view of appointments (macOS)
• Organiser: Things 3 (macOS and iOS)
  • Things 3 is a GTD app which implements the methodology well.
• Office Suite: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel & Powerpoint, NOT Outlook) with Visio & Project via VMWare Fusion 12/11
  • Outlook for Mac is not very good. It is missing the search capabilities that you expect from the Windows App.
• Design
  • OmniGraffle Enterprise (Visio is unavailable on Mac, and this is the nearest thing the Mac has to it!)
  • SimpleMapPro (Great Mind Mapping Software)

Utilities

• BandiZip
  • Fast, MultiCore compression with 7zip
• Bartender
  • If you, like me, have too many icons across your menu bar, you could organise them with this handy extension.
• Burn
  • CD & DVD Creation
• GrandPerspective
  • This is a good fast Mac Port of WinDirStat/LinDirStat if you want to see the overall picture of where your space went.
• The Duplicate Finder (Rocky Sand Studio)
  • Find and eliminate duplicate files easily
• Magnet
  • Organise your desktop with quick keyboard shortcuts
• Time Machine
  • If you’re using Apple and are not backing up with TimeMachine, then you’re missing a trick! So why have a solution this good available only to ignore it?
• Velja
  • Set this software as your default browser, which will steer different URLs to different browsers. You get the best possible experience by using Safari for Apple Sites, Chrome for Google Sites, and Edge for Microsoft Sites. (Well, you get the idea!)