As a web development engineer working at Microsoft, I recently experienced a major life change — being laid off. Although this news caught me off guard, I decided to take advantage of the time before completing the departure procedures to record some very useful Mac tools that I have been using in my work over the years, hoping to help other developers.

I have been using Mac for development at Microsoft. The powerful performance and stability of Mac have made me feel very comfortable at work. Here are some indispensable tools in my daily work:

Visual Studio Code

As a web development engineer, a code editor is an essential tool. Among many editors, my favorite is Visual Studio Code. This editor is not only lightweight but also has powerful extension capabilities, almost meeting all development needs. Whether it’s JavaScript, Python, or other programming languages, VS Code can handle it with ease.

iTerm2

iTerm2 is the terminal replacement tool I use on Mac. Compared to the default terminal application, iTerm2 provides more customization options and features, such as split screen, multiple tabs, search, etc., making me more efficient in handling multiple tasks.

Homebrew

Homebrew is a package management tool on Mac that makes software installation and management exceptionally simple. Through Homebrew, I can easily install various development tools and libraries, greatly improving my work efficiency.

Docker

In the development environment, Docker is an indispensable tool. It allows me to run applications in containers, ensuring the consistency between the development and production environments, avoiding the awkward situation of “it works on my machine.”

Servbay

In the development process, managing and optimizing the local development environment is an important step. Servbay is an integrated, graphical local web development environment designed specifically for web developers (such as PHP, Node.js), test engineers, and small teams. It allows developers to deploy a local development environment in a short time, solving the problems of installing and maintaining development testing environments, and supporting quick upgrades and maintenance of the environment. Servbay includes commonly used web development services and tools such as web servers, databases, development languages, mail servers, and queue services, etc. It supports multiple versions of PHP (from PHP 5.6 to PHP 8.4) and Node.js (from v12 to v22), provides custom domain names, and free SSL support. Servbay also has a command line interface, unified service management, and is compatible with Docker and Node.js.

Through Servbay, I can efficiently run the development environment on macOS 12.0 Monterey or higher versions without consuming additional system resources. It provides a clean, efficient, and secure working environment, integrates the latest security patches, and synchronizes with the official versions. For developers who need to frequently use and manage local development environments, Servbay is undoubtedly a very powerful assistant.

Slack

In terms of team collaboration, Slack is our main communication tool. It not only supports instant messaging but also integrates various third-party applications such as GitHub, JIRA, etc., making team communication and project management smoother.

Postman

When developing and testing APIs, Postman is a very powerful tool. It provides convenient interface testing functions and rich debugging tools, allowing me to quickly perform API testing and debugging.

Looking back on my time at Microsoft, although there are some regrets, I have also gained valuable experience. These tools have played an important role in my daily work, and I hope they can also help you in your work. The road ahead is long, and I believe in myself to go further. I hope this article inspires you and wish all developers a smooth journey on their career paths.