No need to apologise, Gene, but I have to say something when there’s an assumption made that my writing is in some way ‘paid’ by the products I feature. That’s never the case.

I’m also fascinated by your take on this. I need to dig into it a little more, if you don’t mind. And I’ll tackle each of your queries in turn.

I prefer Fantastical over the standard Mac Calendar app, and I don’t like Google Calendar at all — it’s that simple. I use that little Fantastical widget constantly throughout the day to check dates and upcoming appointments and the quick input feature saves me time.

I really don’t like Apple Mail. Spark is a great alternative for me and allows me to use email efficiently each day. It saves me time. It’s also free.

Toggl and Omnifocus ensure I get my work done and help my identify where I’m spending my time — they are essential business tools for me.

Ulysses? It’s quite brilliant (in my opinion — we’re all entitled to one) and ensures I can undertake one of the key elements of my work efficiently and quickly.

When I combine these five apps, Gene, I have a tool set that has helped me create and grow a very profitable business. Is that not a good enough reason to use them? And what about supporting the indie developers behind them? Those I have paid for (Spark and Toggl are free) are so negligible, cost-wise, that they provide ROI almost instantly, and it’s important these guys are able to continue developing and building their own businesses. Or, by your reckoning, should we abolish all indie development and only use Apple, Google and Micorosft software?

Answer me this — do you use anything beyond stock apps yourself? Is there anything installed on your computer which isn’t a manufacturer default (this appears to be your preference)?

Is it the title of this article that has confused you? If so, I should probably clarify that it is a little tongue-in-cheek; I could live without any of these — I wouldn’t cease to exist if any of them were taken from my grasp. It’s a figure of speech.