The Best Mac OS X Software Tools 213
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 bit i like (Score:1, Interesting)
I couldn't agree more. I definitely remember the idea being bandied round a few years back of high level drag and drop programming for the masses. We have Labview which does that for automated instrumentation control and analysis, is it really so hard to make a high level programming language in the same mould?
BootCamp (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Kiddie pools... (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
The things I had to install immediately (Score:2, Interesting)
0. Start Safari, get Firefox, remove Safari from the dock.
1. OS X Developer tools. Going to be compiling lots of stuff.
2. Subversion.
3. VLC
4. TextMate
5. GraphViz
6. Clisp
7. SBCL
8. XWindows
I was so impressed with the compile speed on my new MacBook. I blink and it is done. (Except for compiling
Erlang, that took 30 minutes and burned a hole through my desk. Dude.)
Re:Quicksilver (Score:3, Interesting)
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 the wikipedia entry on Quicksilver, it does look as though Quicksilver has functionality that goes quite a ways beyond what Katapult presently offers. The standout to me is the idea of cataloging various scripts for handling actions through Quicksilver: "fucking sweet" would be a tremendous understatement. Some common actions can be handled via Katapult (such as finding and playing songs in Amarok), though it doesn't seem to be anywhere near as configurable. This is definitely looks to be one of those areas where the ultra-tight integration of OS X applications pays off heavily, even to a stalwart Linux advocate such as myself. Very nice!
My personal List. (Score:2, Interesting)
Looking at the folder of software I use for new installs this is what I would have (no particular order):
Some other nice programs (although not essential):
Obviously I have more programs but these are the ones I feel could be used by most people.