Upon Leopard’s launch, some people found the new Stacks feature of the OS X Dock as generally useless. Some simply do not use Stacks at all, others just keep the default Downloads and Documents. Myself, I have taken to using stacks as simple application launchers, useful for grouping together related programs and not forgetting about them1.
While Firefox may be an excellent browser for a large number of reasons, in time I have started using Safari more and more. The excellent support for standards, fast rendering capability and complete Mac OS X integration make it my first choice on Apple’s platform. However, I still like to have a bit more control over browsing than either vanilla Firefox or plain Safari offer, so here’s what’s extra on my machine1. Mac OS X only.
I posted a list of my most-commonly used applications for the Mac. Some are for pay, some are free, and for me they are all great1.
Enjoy my list and let me know what really makes your day.
This is a list of ‘life-saving’ applications that I use on the Mac, in no particular order. Feel free to add some favourites, I always enjoy trying out new apps.
quicksilver (launcher of things)
skitch (screenshots + image editing)
twitterrific (twitter client)
growl (system-wide notification engine)
transmission (bittorrent client)
visor (drop-down terminal)
omnifocus (GTD)
webkit / safari (browser)1
itunes (music management)
little snitch (outbound firewall)
netnewswire + newsgator (rss)
marsedit (blogging client)
hazel (maintenance/automation utility)
istat pro (system information at a glance)
keycue (remember those shortcuts)
leech (download manager)
yep (pdf manager)
time machine (backup)
caffeine (control mac sleep)
memory cell (application memory usage)
the unarchiver
Apparently, installing software on the Mac is so easy that some people don’t get it. And the problem is, somehow, with the platform, not a case of PEBKAC.
Granted, we are glad to have all these switchers. Or Apple is, anyway. But in no way do I think there is any responsibility insofar as Apple or Mac developers are concerned to accomodate the new wave of users at the cost of corrupting the platform. Sure, marketshare is important, but cloning the ways in which Windows functions is not the way to establish that marketshare. Why have an annoying installer that puts files all over the place when you could just drag and drop the application wherever you want1? Yeah, it takes some getting used to - do it once and you are used to it. I find it a bizarre ‘problem’ to have, considering that most switchers move away from Windows and all its problems. Wouldn’t an installer be just as much a reminder of the bad old days as, say, random BSODs?
I am surprised that people would even turn this into an issue. Simpler is not better, apparently, if the simpler approach is taking you out of your comfort zone for 2.01 seconds. It’s every reboot on Windows after I have installed some moderately complicated piece of software that reminds me just how much better Macs and Linuces are at these sorts of things. And while installing on Linux may be a bit impenetrable for some people (though we have come a long way in recent years) I simply cannot understand what’s the big problem.
The buzz revolves around speculations and rumours that Apple may be releasing a new version of OS X to developers at this year’s WWDC. The discovery of a symlink in WebKit nightlies, as well as TUAW’s report today about 10.6, fuel the fire, and our combined desire and curiosity to see what Cupertino can come up with is strong. Except for Leopard, other versions of OS X came at about a year difference, so the timing would not be too surprising. What is surprising are some of the details of “Snow Leopard”1:
I get asked by a lot of my switcher friends what alternatives to iTunes exist for the Mac. While I personally don’t mind iTunes at all, I understand that some people are thrown off by Apple’s handling of software on Windows in general. So, I have decided to take a look at some of the other music players available for the Mac so that I could come up with a decent answer the next time around. I am looking at basic music playback and Internet radio support, not iPod management or video capabilities necessarily.
The applications under the microscope are Whamb, VLC, ToolPlayer and Cog. The review is quite focused, so for a full feature list, look at the software’s site (linked in every case) or download any of these applications — after all, they are free — and give them a spin. Then come back and tell me about your experience.
RSS readers and desktop blogging tools are the two kinds of applications I try out quite frequently, so I’m always happy when I see new products on the market from either category. It is not necessarily an issue of not being satisfied with what I am currently using1 insomuch as curiosity and wanting to see how people tackle old ideas and try to rethink them and bring better solutions.
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From a Computer World article detailing the reasons a CTO switched back to Windows after a stint on the Mac:
If you keep informed of the movements that are going on in the computer security world, you would know that this week Vancouver was host to the CanSecWest Security Conference. Last year, CSW organizers had “Hack a Mac”, whereby owning their testlab Mac made it yours – plus a nice cash prize.
To take things further, this year the contest was extended to one representative of each of the major platforms: a MacBook Air, a Vista and an Ubuntu Linux. The MBA was first to fall, and while I tried to keep off comments about it… I can’t.
