On the most recent Accidental Tech Podcast, a listener wrote in to ask what hack the hosts rely on so much that using a Mac without it makes the Mac feel broken. That’s a fun question and one I can definitely identify with. Marco mentioned LaunchBar, which is probably the first thing I notice when I’m using a different Mac. My wife’s iMac even feels weird when I sit down to use it, as it has Alfred installed.
Another little thing for me is wallpaper. Outside of really nice pics, I generally don’t like personal shots or photorealistic wallpaper. I like vector graphics and smooshy moody pics.
Orthogonal to this topic is “what’s the first app you install on a new Mac?” That would surely be 1Password for me. Then LaunchBar.