This week, I discovered topgrade, an incredibly useful terminal utility for “upgrading all the things”. This nifty program will examine the software currently residing on your Mac, poll the Mac App Store, brew, and other installed package managers on your system, and install any software updates it finds. topgrade’s consolidated approach streamlines software upgrades down to one simple terminal command. It’s such a big timesaver!
If you’re not running macOS, fear not. topgrade includes community-maintained binaries for Windows and various flavors of Linux.
Hat tip to Lou Plummer (App Addict) for bringing topgrade to my attention.
As of mid July 2026, here is an inventory of the apps I have installed on my 14” M5 Pro MacBook Pro (aka FrugalMac). All prices are listed in US dollars. For convenience, I’ve arranged my software stack into categories.
* purchased a MegaSupporter license more than a decade ago
** provided by the college
One-time purchases: $249
First year subscriptions: $230
Total cost: $479
Software costs ebb and flow, so this is just a snapshot of where things are at almost two months in with my new Mac laptop. My needs and requirements will most certainly grow and change over time.
