With so many of my Windows friends switching completely or picking up a Macintosh to dual boot, I often get asked for recommendations on applications for various tasks. Here’s a few favorites (I’ve omitted any bundled software including the iLife suite, all of which is great. You’ll notice I don’t recommend any software that would supplant an iLife application. They are that good.):
Internet/IM
- Web Browsing: I use both Safari which ships with OS X (love the RSS handling) as well as Firefox. I also installed the Safari 3 beta, and, once it is more stable, I think I probably will probably just need Safari.
- Instant Messaging: iChat AV’s text, voice, and video chat which again ships with OS X is awesome with other Apple owners. Unfortunately, I have friends and clients on multiple platforms and IM clients. Luckily a coworker turned me on to Adium.
Web Design & Development
- FTP Client: Transmit by Panic is easy to use and reliable.
- Information Architecture & Wireframing: OmniGraffle by the OmniGroup is incredibly easy to use and produces elegant documents for clients.
- HTML Authoring: Dreamweaver by Adobe (the version I’m on is the CS2 flavor) works for me.
- Text Editor (Multi-language/platform) / Authoring: TextMate by MacroMates
- Remote Desktop (to a PC): Microsoft kicked out Remote Desktop for the PC a few years ago. If you read the system requirements on the Mactopia page, it makes no mention of Intel-based Macs under the System Requirements. But, it works just fine on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.
- Raster: Photoshop by Adobe is what I’ve always used on Macs and PCs
- Vector: Illustrator by Adobe… as above…
Office/Productivity
- Productivity Suite (Email/Word Processing and Number Crunching): Office 2004 for Mac by Microsoft. It works, but I get frustrated with Word’s performance (speed) and Enterouge doesn’t integrate with the tools on the Mac I DO like (such as Address Book and iCal), it tries to do it all. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, it isn’t a very good Exchange-based email client and misbehaves regularly. With all that said, the support for Exchange in Apple’s Mail application is far worse. .I’m eagerly awaiting what Exchange support is in Leopard (OS X 10.5) as well as the promise of Office for Mac 2008. I’ve said this on my blog a few times: Microsoft, if you’re out there listening, PLEASE let me Beta test Office for Mac 2008!
- Strong Alternative: The Windows OS in a Virtual Environment with Microsoft Office for the PC running: Parallels Desktop for Mac: I love this and have posted about it several times before. The latest version is great. My current setup is a Boot Camp partition with Vista on it as well as Microsoft Office 2007 (PC). I then use Parallels or run Vista in a VM, utilizing my Boot Camp partition. If you go this route, go with XP, not Vista if you plan to run virtualized more than native when using Windows. XP runs like a top whereas Vista demands more system resources and does get laggy.
- Presentation Software: Keynote by Apple (blows PowerPoint away). This doesn’t ship with the OS X, but is worth buying. It comes bundled with iWork, which also includes Pages, which hasn’t taken hold for me yet. Office users will likely find Pages too limited; it is getting close to the balance between ease of use and amount of features, it’s just not all the way there.
Random
- Make my Mac Run Cool: I’ve never owned a PowerBook or MacBook Pro (including my current laptop) which didn’t have the ability to double as a cooking surface. smcFanControl is a utility which monitors CPU temperature and fan RPM’s—and lets you do something about it. You can create new fan profiles that work better for you. A great application that I shouldn’t need. I’m very happy it exists, however.
There are a lot of other applications out there that I’ve installed, enjoyed, and then uninstalled because I simply didn’t need them. The few I mention above I regularly use.Tags:Applications, Mac, Mac for PC Users, OS X, Productivity, Software
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