January 20, 2004

What's on my laptop?

In honour of Sylvain's forthcoming Apple experience, I thought I'd revisit the list of essential software on my Mac. Without further ado:

  • Azureus replaces BitTorrent as the preferred BitTorrent client.
  • Better HTML Export makes it easy to use iPhoto without a .Mac account. You really need Template Manager as well.
  • Combine PDFs is a fantastic tool for stitching separate PDF files into one file.
  • Desktop ManagerDesktop Manager gives me virtual desktops, for Free. CodeTek VirtualDesktop does the same, but at a price.
  • ecto I already mentioned. Worth a second mention.
  • ganttproject is java so not strictly a Mac app, but with this fix it works like a charm. It supports webDAV-hosted project files, which is cool.
  • ViewIt is a nice slideshow / image program.
  • I still like jEdit. I haven't been convinced by native Mac editors. Yet.
  • Limewire for OS X.
  • Lynx is useful for testing or low-bandwidth moments.
  • Logorrhea is great for browsing or searching iChat logs.
  • NetNewsWire of course.
  • NeoOffice has replaced OpenOffice for me. It's a version of OpenOffice that runs (mostly) natively - it looks and feels much better.
  • RealPlayer is pretty much essential.
  • Quinn (via Tim Bray). Tetris, useful for clearing your mind and de-stressing for a while.
  • Steam (via Jeremy) - useful if you listen to BBC Radio a lot.
  • WeatherPop (via Thom) provides a really nice icon and weather drop-down to the menu bar.
  • XChat Aqua - I've not found a Mac IRC client that improves on this. I just find the tabbed interface intuitive.
  • Virtual PC is probably a must-have if you still need some Windows apps.

Phew.

Posted by savs at January 20, 2004 2:36 AM
Comments

Thanks for the list. I have to start downloading right now for all this to be ready when the baby arrives :-)

What I like in the Mac world compared to "other worlds" is that it's a community similar to those we find in opensource: friendly sharing of experiences, and software darwinism naturally selecting and growing the really good utitily programs.

Posted by: Sylvain Wallez at January 20, 2004 9:27 AM