Software Suggestions
So, I have my new MacBook, and one thing I notice about Apple users is they are just as passionate about the apps they use as they are about using Apple products. What’s funny is they will argue over what text editor is better just as fervently as they do when arguing over why a Mac is better than a PC. Based on recommendations by fellow Mac users in the #habari IRC channel, I have already begun collecting applications. So far I have Menuet, Adium, Transmit, Quicksilver, Colloquy, Firefox (of course), Smultron, and Transmission. What other applications for the Mac do I need (or you think I should have)?
Personally, I’d avoid Quicksilver, since I dislike anything that is unnecessary, that’s bloated, that crunches the disk for little real gain — oh, and that changes the basic way the OS works:
http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2007/10/living_with_defaults.html
But Quicksilver has a cast of eager fanboys out there, so I’m pissing in the wind by suggesting caution on that one. :-)
In general, I think it’s a mistake to load up a new machine with a lot of extra software. But of course you’ll need an ftp/sftp client, as the Finder won’t serve there. Transmit is fine, but there are others you could look at: ForkLift, RBrowser, Fugu, Cyberduck.
I don’t like Firefox on OS X, though it’s fine on Windows and OK-ish under Linux (on GNOME at any rate; Konqueror’s the obvious choice on KDE). On the one hand, FF is very much a Windows-centric app; on the other, it’s enough of a cross-platform affair not to feel comfortably in place on any platform (except, perhaps, Windows). If you really want a Gecko-based browser, you might take a look at Mozilla’s other effort, Camino. Perhaps you wouldn’t prefer it to Firefox, if you’re used to that, but it is a fully native OS X browser and has more polish and better platform integration.
I think Smultron is a fine choice. The creme-de-la-creme of text editors on OS X is TextMate. But TextMate does cost.
If you want a dedicated RSS reader, then NetNewsWire is the best one on the Mac — probably on any platform. The free version of NNW, NNW Lite, is also good.
I don’t think there’s much else that *everyone* would want, people having different uses for their machines. I like to have a copy of Pacifist around, because you can get into packages with that, and even use it to reinstall any of the bundled applications off the DVD.
Yeah, I’ve tried Cyberduck. wasn’t really a fan of that. I wanted something that was more like FlashFXP, which is what I’m used to on windows. I find that Transmit is a lot like it, that’s why i chose it.
I’ve not had any problems with firefox on OSX. I know some have, but i’ve yet to experience any problems. I hate safari and love firefox on any platform (though on a few ubuntu installs i’ve had the extensions always seem to break).
As for text editors, I wanted something simple, along the lines of PSPad. I tried textmate and it was ok. I’m not a serious coder and it seems like textmate is the choice of series coders. That’s why I chose smultron. It’s free and looks to do what i want without needing to really config the app to my needs. “It just works.”
I do all my RSS reading online, but i’ve heard good things about NNW. I may give it a shot, but we’ll see.
Thanks for your insights :)