The Best Mac OS X Software Tools

An anonymous reader writes "Mac advocate John C. Welch weighs in with his list of the top 20 Mac OS X products (except Welch manages to list 22). The collection of software tools ranges from the obvious, such as Boot Camp, to the obscure but perhaps more useful — little-known apps like Peter Borg's Lingon, for creating launchd configuration files. What's on your personal list of indispensable Mac productivity aids and programming tools? Also, do you think Welch gives too much air time to built-in OS X tools at the expense of third-party products such as NetworkLocation?"

The List

[BarryJacobsen (526926)]

Ecto

Transmit

Sync Services

BBEdit

Missing Sync for Windows Mobile

OmniGraffle Pro

ConceptDraw

iChat AV

AppleScript

Script Debugger

Microsoft Entourage

SketchFighter 4000 Alpha

TypeIt4Me

NetworkLocation

Apple Remote Desktop 3

MacLink Plus Deluxe

Parallels Desktop for Mac

Remote Desktop Connection

Snapz Pro X

Boot Camp

PDF

Lingon

Workgroup Manager

Quicksilver

[zaphod_es (613312)]

What, 22 favourite apps and no Quicksilver? This is the one program I just could not live without, it is what makes my Mac usable. I hardly use the mouse anymore and access and/or run almost everything on my computer with two or three keystrokes. And it's free!

Re:Quicksilver

[bismark.a (882874)]

I don't own a Mac, but I swear that my next laptop will be a Leopard tera-core sexy machine. And one of the reason for that is beautiful apps like Quick Silver. [blacktree.com]

Re:

[Ash-Fox (726320)]

If there was a quicksilver equivalent that had the same functionality available on the Linux desktop, would you consider Linux?

Re:

[tezbobobo (879983)]

Sorry, he said, "one of the reason". If it also had a program like Indesign, photoshop and their subsequent ability to use CMYK properly, I would. I used linux since RH 5.1 but that was when I was a networker - now I'm a type setter.

Re:

[Ash-Fox (726320)]

Sorry, he said, "one of the reason".

Sometimes it just takes one particular thing to make a decision on considering possible. For example, I knew when I switched to Linux on my main desktop not all my Windows games would work... But I got other benefits that I wanted.

If it also had a program like Indesign, photoshop and their subsequent ability to use CMYK properly, I would.

I don't know of alternatives to Indesign (mostly because I haven't done much with publishing related things yet). But Krita [koffice.org] offers much

Re:

[nick.ian.k (987094)]

Just because they're both launchers does not mean that one does the "exact same thing" as the other. That's like saying GIMP does the "exact same thing" as Photoshop.

If you were trying to be helpful, you'd've mentioned what Quicksilver does differently. Of course, you didn't, and you posted AC because you must fear burning karma. Why? If you're that obsessed with karma points, why not go for the easy "informative" points while simultaneously telling me why I'm wrong? Seems fairly stupid to me.

Checking

Textmate!

[thelamecamel (561865)]

No textmate either! It certainly does everything the journo wants from BBEdit. And for LaTeX and Ruby it's utterly indispensable. I think it's the only shareware I've ever bought.

Re:The List

[by Anonymous Coward]

Linked version with condensed summary. I wanted to find out more about some of them. Others may benefit too.

Ecto [kung-foo.tv] a blogging client (but the site seems to be down: try this for more info [versiontracker.com]). Shareware, $17.95.
Transmit [panic.com] an FTP client. Shareware, $17.95
Sync Services [apple.com] -- comes with 10.4
BBedit [bbedit.com] text/html editor. $125, but worth it.
Missing Synch for Windows Mobile [markspace.com] - synchronize with PDA/smartphones. $49.95/$39.95
OmniGraffle [omnigroup.com] - diagramming / flowchart program. $79.95 / $149.95
ConceptDraw [conceptdraw.com] - another diagramming / flowchart program. $299
IChat AV [apple.com] - built-in to 10.4
AppleScript, Scriptdebugger - also built-in. No link. I'm getting lazy.
Microsoft Entourage [apple.com] -- part of MS Office.
Sketchfigher 4000 Alpha [ambrosiasw.com] -- a game from the great Ambrosia Software [ambrosiasw.com]. $19.00
TypeIt4Me [ettoresoftware.com] - keyboard macro expander. $27
NetworkLocation [centrix.ca] - automatically trigger configuration changes depending upon where you are on the network (e.g., at home, work, etc.). $15
Apple Remote Desktop 3 [apple.com] - control / configure Mac systems remotely. $499 / $299 (unlimited / 10 systems)
MacLinkPlus [dataviz.com] - file conversion software (e.g., from WordPerfect documents to/from Word, and many others). $79
Parallels Desktop for Mac [parallels.com] - virtualization software (e.g., run Win XP simultaneously with OS X). $79.
Remote Desktop Connection [microsoft.com] - connect remotely to a Windows desktop. FREE
Snap X Pro [ambrosiasw.com] - screen / movie capture. $29
Boot Camp - dual boot Windows. I'm lazy.
PDF - Portable Document Format from Adobe? What?
Lingon [sourceforge.net] - tool for making launchd scripts for 10.4.
Workgroup Manager [apple.com] - manage local systems - part of 10.4 Server.

---
Okay, a mildly interesting list. Here's a few more suggestions:

Cyberduck [cyberduck.ch] - FTP and SFTP client. Donationware.
VLC [videolan.org] - cross-platform video viewer / transcoder.
Blender 3D [blender.org] - cross-platform 3D modelling / rendering.
Bookends [sonnysoftware.com] - excellent bibliography software. $99
Celestia [shatters.net] - cross-platform real-time 3D astronomy simulator.
Plot [plot.micw.eu] - a, uh, plotting / graphing program.
proFit [quansoft.com] - another plotting / graphing program, non-free. $95
WordService [devon-technologies.com] - adds a bunch of text reformatting tools to the Services menu, making them accessible in any program. The same page has a bunch of other useful and free services.

The original article lists PDF, but no tools. While its true OS X native support makes PDF pretty easy to use, there's still some tasks that are awkward and some useful tools out there to do t

Re:The List

[Divebus (860563)]

I find it quite telling that one of the most popular applications for the MAC is a program that lets you run a different OS.

If you've been paying attention here for the last year, most of the commentary surrounding virtualization on the Mac has revolved around people finally able to dump their infernal Windows machine and do everything on a Mac instead. Parallels [parallels.com], along with Boot Camp, is quite possibly the largest driver of Mac sales in the last year. There are a few functions not available on the Mac [yet] and Parallels lets people run those few apps they'd miss from Windows. Yes, Paralleles does run Linux. I currently know more people who dumped their Windows machines in the last year than I know remaining Windows owners - and those aren't far behind.

printer friendly version

[JoeKuboj (918191)]

much better
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArt icle.jhtml?articleID=197700391 [informationweek.com]
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArt icle.jhtml?articleID=197700439 [informationweek.com]

BootCamp

[suv4x4 (956391)]

Who else thinks that BootCamp being in the top 20 best OSX products is kinda silly?

On Windows (or even Linux) you don't see "top 10 best products" list that often, if at all, simply because they are too many to just list a "top 20 best".

Computers have moved to a point where different people use them for wildly different purposes. As such, you simply can't have "top X products" for an entire OS. If on Mac it's not the same, it's that much sadder.

It's a top-20 list for sysadmins

[LKM (227954)]

Have you even read the freaking list? It's obviously a top-20 list for sysadmins.

Some of Mine:

[sugapablo (600023)]

Being a web developer who works from home, here's my short list of tools I like:

Web Developer Ext. for Mozilla: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/ [mozilla.org]
MailTags: http://www.indev.ca/MailTags.html [indev.ca]
FTP/SFTP Client: http://cyberduck.ch/ [cyberduck.ch]
Text Editor: http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/ [barebones.com]
OpenOffice: http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/ [openoffice.org]
Image Editor: http://www.macgimp.org/ [macgimp.org]

Strange ommisions

[Salsaman (141471)]

No mention of fink or Darwin ? Those are pretty much the only tools I know on OSX.

CodeTek's Virtual Desktop

[Brackney (257949)]

I was quite fond of CodeTek's Virtual Desktop. http://codetek.com/ctvd/ [codetek.com] It made me feel right at home when jumping between my Linux desktop and the Mac. Lots of real-estate, some nice customization features, and mouse focus behavior I preferred to OS X's. Sadly, the application hasn't been properly supported for a while. It does work, mostly, but isn't as flawless as it once was. I recently had to turn it off because of some misbehaviors with Firefox.

Re:

[Brackney (257949)]

Oh shoot. I forgot to mention another app that I use a lot, Cyberduck. http://cyberduck.ch/ [cyberduck.ch] Great little FTP client.

Kiddie pools...

[Beefslaya (832030)]

For starters:

I would throw in iTerm, virtueDesktops, Parallels, TextMate, Navicat for Mac.

Without these programs, I couldn't make it in the fast paced Graphic Design field of Macs (Any other IT people out there want to shit nails when someone says Mac's are for graphic design? Last time I checked, my Macs didn't look like big blue pumpkins.)

----My Motto:
I don't care if the customer's stuff is working or not. I just don't want to be affected by whatever they have. My equipment MUST work, Therefore I use Apple.

Missing Program

[maytagman (971263)]

How on earth did he not include Onyx? I'd probably say its top 5... http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html [titanium.free.fr] from the site: It allows you to run misc tasks of system maintenance, to configure certain hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, Dashboard, Exposé, Safari, Login window and many Apple's applications, to delete cache, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, to see the detailed info of your configuration, to preview the different logs and CrashReporter reports, to check the Preferences files and more. I would even go so far as to say it deserved to be number one...

Menumeters

[Espectr0 (577637)]

Come on, who doesn't have menumeters? It's even free. Handy little tool to know the transfer rate of your network card.

What about Growl?

[libwolf (1074434)]

Don't forget http://www.growl.info/ [growl.info] - just need to know a tiny bit of scripting and it's amazingly useful

Re:The bit i like

[Watson Ladd (955755)]

Programing is hard. It doesn't matter if you use drag and drop widgets, or switches on the front board. You still need to specify what you are doing in a precise manner. With Labview it is easy because it has a very limited domain. Not so with general programing.

Re:

[soupforare (542403)]

While not general-purpose, Max/MSP is drag and drop and it's still mostly in the hands of geeks. I'd wonder how many not-geeky musicians that are required to look at it in/through college ever pick it up after graduation?
I think it's a difference of expectation, the masses just want to pop a disc in and have something happen. They don't want to wrench on stuff.

Re:

[Tim Browse (9263)]

If you have trouble typing, programming of any kind probably isn't going to be your thing anyway.

Re:Essential Mac tools...

[AugstWest (79042)]

Or, just:

vi (built-in)
screen (built in)
apache (built-in)
ssh (built-in)
emacs (built-in)

and the list goes on.

It's my favorite *nix workstation. I don't wear an earring, drive a Jetta, or own a kayak, mountain bike or iPod.