Running on a Mac
Originally posted 2005-03-31 20:30:10
I’ve had my iBook, which introduced me to both Macs and Mac OS X, for almost a year now. When I first got it, I struggled to find software for it–what tools should I use? Which work well? Which don’t? Over time, I’ve amassed several software tools that help me to be productive.
Today, I had lunch with a former colleague, who confessed that he’d just popped for a 17\” PowerBook. Like Paul Graham recently said, the techies are moving to Macs. I told him (my friend, not Paul Graham) that I’d send him a list of the software I use. Later, I realized I might as well blog my list, so more people can benefit from it.
So, here’s a list of the applications I’ve installed on my Mac. I didn’t include the software that comes with Mac OS X (except for Xcode, to remind people to install that). I’ve categorized the software, and tried to list type, cost, and whether I’ve registered or donated. I’d love to hear feedback.
Programming
BBEdit (commercial–$199) (purchased) http://www.barebones.com
This is the top-of-the-line programmer’s editor for Mac OS X. Honestly, however, I just bought it a couple of days ago, so I haven’t yet discovered all its capabilities. It doesn’t have Brief key mappings, which is sad, so I’m finally biting the bullet and learning Emacs. Another contender in this space is Visual SlickEdit, which DOES have key mappings, but not only does it run under X11, it uses Motif widgets. UGLY. BBEdit sells for $199, but if you download and register their freeware TextWrangler (see below) you can upgrade for $129. It’s a little confusing on their website, I think–just click \”Buy\” for BBEdit, then you come to a screen on which you can input your TextWrangler 2.0 coupon code (emailed to you when you register it) to get the discount.
CSSEdit (shareware–$24.99) (registered) http://www.macrabbit.com
A nice CSS editor. I haven’t fired it up in awhile, but I haven’t had any CSS to edit, either. It shows both the source and the effects, visually, of your styles.
DENIM (freeware) http://guir.berkeley.edu/projects/denim/
This lets you draw things. I put this in Programming, not Graphics, because it’s really designed to do things like draw GUI prototypes or site maps. Kind of cool. I hardly use it, but it’s a nice-to-have.
eclipse (freeware) (open source) http://eclipse.org
A terrific Java IDE. You’d expect it to be full of compromises, since it’s free, but it has world-class capabilities that you won’t find even in some commercial offerings. It’s worth buying a book on Eclipse (in addition to The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace, of course) to get the most out of this tool.
Nvu (freeware) (open source) http://www.nvu.com/
Web-site management software. I keep meaning to use this, but haven’t yet.
SubEthaEdit (freeware–commercial use requires $35 license) http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/
Another text editor, one that uses Rendezvous to allow collaborative, simultaneous editing. I’ve never tried that, and don’t use this anymore, but keep it around in case I come across someone with a Mac that wants to collaboratively edit some source code.
Taco HTML Edit (freeware) http://tacosw.com/index.php
I found this after I bought TextWrangler (see below), and found that it didn’t have HTML syntax highlighting. Kind of fun, but now that I have BBEdit it may never be launched again.
TextWrangler (commercial/freeware) (registered) http://www.barebones.com
This replaced BBEdit Lite as Bare Bones’ bare-bones editor. I bought version 1.5 for $49, but now 2.0 has been released as freeware. It lacks the HTML editing features and the version control hooks of BBEdit. Probably more stuff, too, but it’s a very capable editor–certainly the best you’ll get for the price.
Xcode (freeware) http://www.apple.com
A must for Cocoa/Carbon/Objective-C development.
vim (freeware) (open source) http://www.vim.org/
You’ve got to have a GUI vi. ‘Nuff said.
Network
Chicken of the VNC (freeware) (open source) http://www.geekspiff.com/software/cotvnc/
This is a VNC client, used to connect to other boxes and remote control them.
CyberDuck (freeware) (open source) (donations accepted) http://cyberduck.ch/
An FTP/SFTP client. I just downloaded this, and used it a couple of times, but my FTP needs are so few that command-line FTP usually suffices. I’ll probably eventually choose between this and Fugu (see below), though, although I’m not sure I’ll fire either of them up enough to make a decision.
Firefox (freeware) (open source) (donations accepted) http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Terrific browser. I hope you’ve heard of it. Admittedly, though, I use Safari almost exclusively. I did buy a Firefox polo shirt, though.
Fugu (freeware) (open source) http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/
FTP/SFTP client. See CyberDuck.
Opera (shareware/freeware) (registered) http://www.opera.com
Terrific browser. While I use Opera as my primary browser on Windows, and have bought both the Windows and the Mac OS X versions, I rarely use it on the Mac. I guess since Safari has tabs, and I can’t really do mouse gestures on my touchpad/one-button iBook, I haven’t seen much of its advantages. Maybe if I learn the powerful keystrokes Opera offers . . . .
I do use Opera, with its OperaShow capabilities, for all my presentations. I use QuickShow (http://www.philburns.com, shareware) on my Windows box to create the presentations. Now, if I could just get Mr. Burns to port it to Mac . . . .
VPNClient (freeware) http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/vpn/client/
The client software to get on a Cisco VPN. Mine quit working somewhere along the way, and I’m having a hard time downloading the latest version without knowing any Cisco website passwords.
Yahoo! Messenger (freeware) http://www.yahoo.com
My only IM software, and I hardly ever fire it up. CUL8R.
Productivity
AbiWord (freeware) http://www.abisource.com/
Nice word processor, though the fonts don’t seem to render quite correctly the few times I’ve used it.
eReader (shareware/freeware) http://www.ereader.com
eBook reader. I read my ebooks on my Palm, though, so I didn’t bother to buy the Pro version for Mac, and haven’t read any eBooks on it. Its days on my hard drive are probably numbered.
iTeXMac (freeware) (open source) http://itexmac.sourceforge.net/
LaTeX authoring environment. Works nicely.
NeoOffice/J (freeware) (open source) http://www.neooffice.org/
Mac/Java/Carbon version of OpenOffice.org that doesn’t use X11. It does use the Mac menu bar. I use this almost exclusively for word processing.
OpenOffice.org (freeware) (open source) http://www.openoffice.org
I used this until I found NeoOffice/J. I haven’t fired it up since.
Osoft ThoutReader (freeware) http://www.osoft.com/store/
This is supposed to be the tech book reader of the future. I haven’t read any books on it yet, though.
Utilities
Butler (freeware) (donated) http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?thema=vorwort&sprache=english&kopf=labor
This does lots of things, and I haven’t explored much of them, but the thing I use over and over is its launching capabilities. Press Ctrl+Space, start typing the name of the application you want to launch, pick it from a list, and press enter. The only launcher you’ll need. You can also press Ctrl+Space and type the name of someone in your address book to bring up contact information. Very cool.
Compost (shareware) (still evaluating) http://homepage.mac.com/gweston/compost/index.html
Trash manager. Unlike Windows, Mac OS X doesn’t automatically empty the trash. With Compost, you can limit the size of your trash can, have it expire items after a certain number of days, and empty the trash securely.
DragThing (shareware) (registered) http://www.dragthing.com/
This is a dock replacement that I’d probably use a lot more if I didn’t have Butler. This is probably the best dock replacement out there. Believe me, you’re going to want to replace the Dock.
Fink Commander (freeware) (open source) http://finkcommander.sourceforge.net/
fink (command line) and Fink Commander (GUI) usually get me into trouble. They provide a way to install Unix packages (think of Debian’s apt-get). I usually manage to munge my Apple X11 installation, however, and have to reinstall X11.
GeekTool (freeware) (open source) http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/
You can use this to show logs or the output of commands on your desktop. You can use it for lots of things, apparently, but mostly I don’t get it. I’ve disabled it for the time being, but may get back to using it.
Graphing Calculator (freeware) http://www.pacifict.com/Products.html
Put in an equation and see the graph. You’ve got to read the story of its birth though–it’s hard to believe.
Growl (freeware) http://growl.info/
This is a notification service that other software can use to notify you of things they’re doing. The only tool I have installed so far that uses Growl is CyberDuck, which gives CyberDuck the edge in my FTP client runoff 🙂
iPulse (shareware–$12.95) (registered) http://www.iconfactory.com/ip_home.asp
Cool skinnable clock/activity monitor. Best way to see what’s going on inside the system.
iTerm (freeware) (open source) (donated) http://iterm.sourceforge.net/
Terminal replacement with tabs. I love it. It has transparency, color settings, SSH, all the goodies you want with a terminal. I even sent in a patch for one of the requested features (toggling transparency with a keystroke), but it hasn’t been incorporated. Get this and you’ll never launch Terminal.app again.
MacJanitor (freeware) http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/macjanitor.html
Performs system maintenance (rotating log files, etc.).
OnyX (freeware) http://www.boostware.com/os/mac/onyx.html
Tweak system settings. I just got this, and really haven’t done much with it. I don’t think I saw any settings that I felt like needed to be tweaked. Maybe later.
Passwords Plus (commercial–$29.99) (registered) http://www.dataviz.com/products/passwordsplus/
You can find lots of password storage programs, but I chose this one for one simple reason: it runs on Windows, Mac, and Palm, and syncs among all of them. I’m sure security folks shudder at the thought of storing all one’s passwords in one location, but if I didn’t use this I’d use the same, easy-to-remember password for everything. This software allows me to use different, hard-to-guess passwords for every site.
Path Finder (shareware–$34) (registered) http://www.cocoatech.com/
Finder replacement that incorporates many features. Well worth it.
SlimBatteryMonitor (freeware) (donations accepted) http://www.orange-carb.org/SBM/
I think I’ll get around to donating to this one. It replaces the battery monitor in your menu bar, and uses much less space. Essential for laptops.
StickyBrain (shareware–$39.99) (registered) http://www.chronosnet.com/Products/sb_product.html
I’m typing this in StickyBrain. It’s a note manager–you store your notes in different categories, can search them, email them, etc. I tried the leading outliners (OmniOutline, Notebook, NoteTaker), but I really didn’t want an outliner. I wanted an electronic notebook, and I love this software.
TinkerTool (freeware) http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html
Tweak system settings. See OnyX.
WindowShade X (shareware–$10) (registered) http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/wsx
Allows you to roll up windows to their title bars, miniaturize them, make them transparent . . . I don’t use it as much as I used to, since Expose makes window management pretty easy, but still worth having.
Witch (freeware) (donations accepted) http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?thema=witch&sprache=english&kopf=labor
Command+Tab supplement (uses Alt+Tab) to cycle through apps. Allows you to cycle through all windows, though, not just apps. It’s a little to slow on my iBook to be usable.
Graphics
Gimp (freeware) (open source) http://www.gimp.org/
Maybe someday I’ll learn to use this tool. Or maybe Jasc will port Paint Shop Pro, which I use religiously on Windows. This means that I make graphics only on Christmas and Easter. I just don’t do enough graphics to learn or spring for another tool.