You need to get out of the PC mindset when you come to Macs. Macs aren't shipped with adware. For the most part, it comes with just the essentials. One could argue if they need Garageband or whatever, but if you're not hurting for space, it doesn't hurt to leave it.
My recommendation to you:
1. Hook your external drive to your Airport Extreme and just use it as a dedicated Time Machine disk. Let it do its thing in the background, that's what it's for.
2. Skip the AppCleaner for now. Learn the system before you want to purge it of its contents.
3. You can also skip the recovery disks - fail safes are built in already. (It just works!) Besides, you'll have the Time Machine to come back to if things fail.
4. I'd skip Firefox honestly. In my last system that was my primary browser, but since I just upgraded to Yosemite for testing, I've been using Chrome and Safari exclusively. I don't miss it at all, and the other two browsers are way faster.
5. Just enjoy using your machine. Like I said, get out of the PC mindset where you have to manage your machine. The MBP is here to work for you; you don't have to work for it. Do the above and more than likely your laptop will boot up just as fast 3 years from now as the day you've bought it.
My recommendation to you:
1. Hook your external drive to your Airport Extreme and just use it as a dedicated Time Machine disk. Let it do its thing in the background, that's what it's for.
2. Skip the AppCleaner for now. Learn the system before you want to purge it of its contents.
3. You can also skip the recovery disks - fail safes are built in already. (It just works!) Besides, you'll have the Time Machine to come back to if things fail.
4. I'd skip Firefox honestly. In my last system that was my primary browser, but since I just upgraded to Yosemite for testing, I've been using Chrome and Safari exclusively. I don't miss it at all, and the other two browsers are way faster.
5. Just enjoy using your machine. Like I said, get out of the PC mindset where you have to manage your machine. The MBP is here to work for you; you don't have to work for it. Do the above and more than likely your laptop will boot up just as fast 3 years from now as the day you've bought it.