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I call upon thee, Zooiblog reader, for information regarding Mac OS X software. My Mac mini should arrive any day soon, and I want you to get me to buy just that great app. Wanna know what I usually need? Feed reader, text editor and an IRC client. All the other stuff is out there for free.

That’s not all, of course. I’m currently thinking of Adium (any better alternative), TextMate and Pulp Fiction for feeds, but I don’t know what’s best. Suggest me all the apps you use and think are needed for me (I’m a web designer, hit it!), and suggest some nice stuff as well: I can’t do without pointless apps or games for Dashboard.

Also, for those who know: I want to be able to access my Win box. Jeff told me KVM switches won’t work, so it’s either virtual-remote PCing (if that’s even possible) or plugging the cables every now and then. Anyone?

Posted on 2005-04-29 when I tried to get up and all?

18 comments

  1. Michael Heilemann 2005-04-29 #1

    NetNewsWire, Transmit 3, CandyBar, xScope and of course Quicksilver (Which is free).

  2. Remi Prevost 2005-04-29 #2

    If you need an IRC client, then you should try X-chat. I also love Quicksilver as I don’t like to click on icons to open my stuff :P

  3. Mathias Bynens 2005-04-29 #3

    Perhaps you could discover some great Macware in the comments on this post.

  4. FriedGeek 3.0 2005-04-29 #4

    Getting to your WinPC from a mac: I’ve found the XP Remote Desktop Connection works well. You can download the OSX client free from microsoft.

    And here’s my list.

    Adium - Multi-protocol instant messenger client
    Audacity - Record and edit sound files
    Audio Hijack Pro - Custom audio output filtering
    AudioX - Record audio from any input source
    Backlight - Menu extra toggles screensaver as your desktop
    BurnX Free - Burn multiple sessions on CD
    CandyBar - Change your application and system icons
    Carbon Copy Cloner - Easy-to-use backup/cloning utility
    Cocktail - Simplifies use of UNIX functions in OS X, and more.
    Colloquy - IRC client
    CSSEdit - Visual CSS style editor
    DeepVacuum - Download entire websites
    Deja Vu - Schedule regular file backups
    Delicious Library - Catalogue your books, cd’s, games, dvd’s
    DragThing - An alternative to the dock
    EarthDesk - A dynamic desktop picture or the earth
    ecto - Post entries to weblog systems
    G-Force - iTunes visualisation plugin
    iBank - Intuitive personal finance manager
    iPulse - Monitor system activity, CPU, memory, network, etc.
    iWork - Self-employed time billing manager
    MacJournal - Create personal logs & diary entries
    MailDrop - Mass email client
    NetNewsWire - RSS news aggregator
    OSXvnc - VNC remote control protocol
    Renamer4Mac - Rename files en masse. Useful for digital cameras
    Skype - Uses P2P for phone-over-internet talking
    Still Life - Zoom, rotate and pan over photos, export as video
    SubEthaEdit - Use Rendezvous for collaborative editing
    Synergy - Adds iTunes controls to your menu bar
    TextForge - Open source text editor
    Transmit - FTP client
    Unison - Usenet newsreader handles messages, files, & media
    Virtue - Virtual desktop manager
    VLC - Play DivX encoded movies (and more).
    WhiteCap - iTunes visualisation plugin
    Word Browser Plugin - Allows web browsers to display Word files
    xPad - Notebook/scrapbook supports drag & drop
    xScope - Suite of screen tools for UI designers

  5. Olly 2005-04-29 #5

    Why the hell won’t KVMs work? Even USB ones?

    /chucks plans out the window.

  6. Peter J.Lambert 2005-04-29 #6

    Feedreader, Text Editor, IRC Client: NewsFire, skEdit, Fire.

    I tried a few other feed readers and even went solely to Bloglines for a while, but the interface on NewsFire won me over.

    I’ve found skEdit to be a pretty good editor. I am, however considering playing the field on this one. Not for any other reason than that I like change.

    I tried Fire as a multi-protocol messenger and it was doing a good job. Then I realised that I only ever chatted to people on iChat or AIM, so I started using iChat. I’m an interface whore.

    As for getting onto your Win box from the mac, I had mine set up using Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Client on both, over a wireless network. The PC just sat headless in my pantry. It worked for a while, then I realised I wasn’t using the PC for anything other than heating up everything else in the pantry, so I switched it off.

    I’d recommend an FTP client but the free one I use is ugly and shit. I’ll use peoples comments on this post to suggest me a new one. I know Transmit’s supposed to be good, but I’m a cheapskate.

    I’ve heard great things about Quicksilver and I’ve got it installed, but I’m fucked if I know what it’s for. I haven’t had the time to find explanations beyond “It’s great. An absolute must for any mac user”.

    As for nice things, I’ve been using Growl a lot recently. That’s a nice little app.

    Also, you’ll love Safari. I know you’re a heavy Firefox user right now, and I was too, but Safari really is sweet.

    Oh, and there’s a little app called Delocalizer which I found last night. You can choose which languages you’re never going to run your system in (Portugese or Mandarin for example) and it removes them. It freed up about a gig on my laptop last night.

  7. janco 2005-04-29 #7

    hmmmm, I’ probably not a software junky. I the standard software for 90% of the time: mail and browsing. RSS I do using the excelent bloglines because I have 3 laptops and a desktop so this is the best solution for me. Ohw, I almost don’t dare to say I have a copy of MS word to view the odd .doc attachment. The little web development I did was using Eclipse IDE as editor. Ok, I know it is overpowered, but I had it installed to look if it worked and just used it as multitabbed editor.

  8. Jeff Wheeler 2005-04-30 #8

    I use TextWrangler, a free version of BBEdit for coding. It’s good, but I’m sure if you want to pay you can find something better (like BBEdit..)

  9. Markus 2005-05-01 #9

    I would recommend the following: Camino (Browser), Colloquy (IRC), Cyberduck (FTP), Ecto (Weblog), Mellel (text processing), NetNewsWire (Feedreader), SubEthaEdit (Editor), Skype (VoIP) und VLC Media Player (Media).

  10. Switch 2005-05-01 #10

    Why won’t KVM switches work? I know someone (digitally) with a Mac Mini and Windows and he uses a KVM switch :)

  11. Rob 2005-05-02 #11

    Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I was considering most you mention, Michael, but glad you reassure my options. FriedGeek, impressive list. Neat stuff.

    Switch, that’s because Jeff told me so. I’m also okay with virtual PC’ing though.

  12. Rob McMichael 2005-05-03 #12

    You should check out the chicken of VNC for all your VNC needs
    Will second Adium too, the latest Beta is just fantastic.
    BluePhoneElite is very good for sending SMS’s and proximity stuff
    BlueCoconut is great for nabbing other peoples iTuens stuff
    VLC is the best video app about
    NewsFire for all your RSS needs (testing safari RSS at the moment)
    ImageWell is good too for uploading images and junk

  13. Switch 2005-05-04 #13

    Rob, I’m just saying that it’ll probaly work for you aswell since it’s working for my friend, don’t listen to Jeff, he’s evil!

  14. Mathias Bynens 2005-05-05 #14

    Gimme some mo’.

  15. Will Prater 2005-05-05 #15

    LaunchBar filters.
    Adium quacks.
    NetNewsWire Pro keep you updated.
    TextMate just loves the UNIX core.
    Interarchy can mount disks via SFTP!
    World Clock Deluxe knows GMT.

    Enjoy.

  16. Brian 2005-05-08 #16

    NewsFire or NetNewsWire 2 Pro
    Adium
    Colloquy
    skEdit
    SubEthaEdit
    QuickSilver
    CyberDuck
    Transmit
    Mellel

    Those should all be great pieces of software (some of them overlap categories).

  17. AJ 2005-05-11 #17

    Colloquy for irc
    Textwrangler for text
    Cyberduck for ftp
    NewsMac for RSS

    all free, all excellent imo!

  18. Bart 2005-05-15 #18

    Definitely try Pithhelmet, a plugin to Safari for ad-free browsing.

    If you use SSH, SSHKeychain is a very useful little app.

    Abiword, for a simple, lightweight texteditor which supports Word documents.

    Already mentioned by others, but worth repeating:

    Newsfire - An RSS reader with an excellent interface. The latest version supports Podcasts.

    Colloquy - IRC client.

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