[geeks] Apple software: the stuff you "gotta have"

Tue Oct 9 23:10:24 CDT 2007

On Oct 9, 2007, at 11:16 PM, N. Miller wrote:

> On Oct 9, 2007, at 3:24 PM, Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>
>> For all you mac-heads on the list, how about a list of the software
>> that you "just gotta have".
>
> * X-Chat Aqua for IRC, going against the grain :-)

I used to use x-chat when using KDE. It's not bad.

> * JBidWatcher for eBay sniping
> * Space for virtual desktops (will be obsolete with 10.5 as I
> understand it)

I'm still not sure about Leopard.  It seems from what I read it will  
break a lot of things.  We'll see.

Hope they give a free upgrade or steep discount for people who just  
got Tiger.

> * TextMate for script/programming for the syntax coloring and auto-
> indent.  I like it better than BBEdit and TextWrangler.  Emacs @ the
> command line otherwise.  I might prefer TextWrangler if regex was
> more important to me, as my understanding is that TextWrangler is top
> dog there.

My problem is I have vi programmed at very low levels in my neural  
network.  I'm still not sure what to do about a code editor.  I can  
use other editors well enough for things like email, even though it  
annoys me, but for other things I'm wondering if I'll want to try and  
get a "vi widget" to plug into other apps.

> * CSSedit for CSS hackery (some swear by Coda and/or Xyle Scope, but
> those seemed too heavy for me.  I might try again when I can upgrade
> the Mac).  "X-Ray", which allows you to click web page elements and
> get a bread crumb trail of inheritance has been a great learning tool
> for me as I fumble my way around learning this stuff.

I need a good CSS editor.  I hate CSS, so whatever makes it easier  
would be cool by me.

> * MAMP for *painless* Apache2+MySQL stack

Fortunately I have an external server for that kind of stuff.

> * Amarok *can* be built on the Mac, it just takes a bit of work.
> Anyone with a decent understanding of build dependencies can do it.
> Caveat, I last built it about a year ago. It was too beefy for my
> Quicksilver to handle and haven't gone back to using it.

Amarok has gotten faster in the last year, so it might run OK now.  I  
know it was slow even on my KDE system with a dual-core Opteron CPU,  
until about 6 months ago, when it seemed to make another big speed  
increase.

> * iGTD for task management/"GTD" (at least the illusion  
> thereof...  :-)

I downloaded that and I'm trying to learn it.  It seems very  
powerful, but I'm not sure my brain is picking it up very well.

> * NeoOffice.

I got that, but I'm having trouble with it.  It's huge, and it does  
really funky things with fonts.  For example, loading docs from my  
Linux box it doesn't get the fonts right, and even when I change to a  
font the Mac has, sometimes bold won't work, just for example.

Maybe it is just a file format issue or something I've done wrong.

> * Seashore, ImageWell, and the Gimp for graphics, if you don't want
> to pony up for Photoshop.

I was thinking of getting Photoshop Elements.

I have downloaded Pixelmator to try out since it looks interesting.

I have also thought about either Lightroom or Aperature.  But, I hate  
to spend $300, and I've heard they both make even a Mac Pro look slow.

> * MacFUSE and sshfs.

Hmmm... I seem to have skipped over this area.

One thing I need to figure out is how to make my CIFS and other  
remove server mounts come up automatically.  You'd think since this a  
Mac, it would be some obvious setting that handles that.

> * VueScan, best damn consumer scanner program.
> * the Unarchiver for everything BOMArchive can't handle.
> * NetHack :-)

I will not install any version of hack/dungeon/etc on my machine ever  
again.

Never.

I mean it.

> * Carbon Copy Cloner (thirded, I guess :-)
> * Camino, Safari, Opera, Firefox (in that order)

I like Camino, but I can't figure out how to make the stupid thing  
remember the window size I like best.

> I use Mail.app for Mail, I just can't get over the learning curve
> hurdle to use mutt thanks to pine being so ingrained in my curses-
> based email brain.  And pine+IMAP == loss of sanity points.

Same here.  I like mutt better, but it is a bitch for handling IMAP,  
especially multiple accounts, and Mail works with a lot of the rest  
of the system.  It's really not as bad as I was expecting it to be,  
though it does have annoyances that I can't fathom.

For example, I'd love to turn *OFF* flowed text and do it the old  
fashioned way sometimes.

> What are people using for RSS feeds?

I've never really found anything I liked for RSS so far, so I'm still  
searching.

> I don't grok QuickSilver myself.  Can someone please explain it?

When I use QS, I never see all the stuff that I see in the demos.   
It's just a fairly generic spotlight-ish program as far as I can  
see.  I guess that means I don't grok it either.

However, I have found it convenient, so I use it.

Actually, all day today I decided to give Butler a try.  It's about  
the same thing, at least as far as I've gotten into either program so  
far.

> Notebook alternatives--DEVONthink + DEVONagent (on my "to purchase
> list", can't afford at the moment), Circus Ponies, Voodoo Pad,  
> AquaMinds
> NoteTaker.  There's a bunch of this kind of thing on the Mac.

I did not like NoteTaker.  OmniOutliner might be the one.

I think I might buy Voodoo Pad, depends on how much the lite version  
can do.

> I recently found this web site, <http://osx.hyperjeff.net/Apps/>,
> which is a very complete listing of Mac OS X (and Classic) softwares.

Thanks.

> I also found this list <http://rangit.com/operating-systems/top-40-
> most-useful-free-mac-os-x-softwares/>, of which I am trying out
> Sharepoints <http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/> and Skim <http://
> skim-app.sourceforge.net/index.html>.  I'm hoping the latter will
> support pdf files with layers (Acrobat on OS X sucks rocks).

I'll have to check that out too.