This blog has moved!

A co-worker of mine recently switched to a brand new MacBook Pro from his old Windows box.

We do web development here, so naturally he had specific requirements for the software he used and how he worked. Being that I’ve been doing it for the past few years, I figured I’d help out and pass along my advice.

Take this all with a grain of salt..you might hate my suggestions, but chances are, you’ll love them.

Text Editor:
Every developer, no matter what language needs some type of Text Editor. The best I’ve found is without a doubt, Textmate. While there’s plenty of quirks that drive me nuts, it’s an overall powerhouse when you get used to it. - http://www.macromates.com/

Text Editor (Free):
If you’re on a budget, pickup TextWrangler, it’s just as powerful as Textmate, but the interface is a bit more bloated and not as simple as Textmates. It’s a great peice of software though. - http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/

XCode:
If you need more than a simple text editor, Textmate might not do the trick, if that’s the case, go download Apple’s XCode IDE, it’s an amazing tool and it’s Free! (WARNING: XCode is nearly a GB download!) - http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/

Web Browser:
If you’re a Web Developer, get yourself a copy of FireFox. Safari is an awesome browser, and I use it for personal usage, but for testing websites, it’s not the best test point. This isn’t Apple’s fault. Safari is the only browser to follow ALL standards point by point. If an HTML/CSS document is perfectly written, it’ll display perfect in safari. - http://www.firefox.com

CSS Edit:
Not really a necessity unless you do Web Development and even then you might hate it, but it’s on my dock with now and I love it. It really lets you have a holistic view of a CSS document. - http://macrabbit.com/cssedit/

FTP:
Nothing to say for this, you probably need it, and Panic makes the best client. - http://www.panic.com/transmit/

FTP (Free):
If you don’t want to spend the money for Transmit (trust me it’s well worth it), pick up CyberDuck, it’s a bit less on the feature side, but a great application none the less. - http://cyberduck.ch/

Google vs iCal:
iCal is an amazing calendar application, but I love Google Calendar just as much. Lucky for me, SpanningSync does the job of merging the content. - http://spanningsync.com/

Application Launching:
You might not like this application at first, but if you use it right, it’s invaluable. QuickSilver let’s you launch applications quickly and do a lot of other cool stuff too. - http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

Non-Standard Archives:
OS X does an awesome job with it’s built in archive support; however, it doesn’t support the proprietary formats (.rar,sitx,7z..etc) to solve that problem, you have a few options. StuffIt (http://www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html) is the oldie in this category, but a lot of people have been fond of the recently released “The Unarchiver”. - http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

Less Typing:
Not really a necessity, but an awesome add-on to the OS X platform. Take a look at TextExander’s website for more information. - http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/

Windows:
Some things are just glued to Windows, (Like QuickBooks, yes I know they have a Mac version, but it sucks.) If you find yourself in that boat, get yourself some parallels and have the best of both worlds. Itreally runs Windows flawlessly. If you’re a web developer. Having every browser on 1 computer, is a god send. - http://www.parallels.com/

File Browser:
Apple’s native file browser (Finder) is a bit on the simple side. It is a great application, but if you’re used to Windows, you might want a bit more control and some nifty features too. If that’s the case, check out PathFinder. - http://www.cocoatech.com/

Instant Messenger:
Unfortunately, the major platforms (MSN/AIM/ICQ/YIM) still haven’t recognized the Mac as a dominant platform and as a result the Mac versions of AIM and so on, are way behind. Lucky for us, Adium blows all of these away, and does the job very well. - http://www.adiumx.com

BitTorrent Downloads:
You have two great options when it comes to Torrents. If you’re a casual downloader and want something that works, has a gorgeous interface and is fast, take a look at XTorrent (http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/), BUT if you don’t want to spend any money and you want the power of Torrent, the Official BitTorrent client (http://www.bittorrent.com/) is pretty nice for Mac (and Free!).

P2P:
The best P2P client that I’ve found is Acquisition, it’s got a beautiful interface and some nifty features to boot. - http://www.acquisitionx.com/

Unification:
This isn’t really needed ASAP, but if you like uniformity, this guy’s for you. It’ll match the OS X interface across every program and really adds a nice touch. - http://gui.interacto.net/

GMail:
The official GMail Notifier works great for Mac, and is a definite necessity for anyone who uses Mac. - http://mail.google.com/mail/help/notifier/notifier_mac.html

DVD Ripping:
You can’t beat MacTheRipper, it’s small, fast and it does the job. Free too! - http://www.mactheripper.org/

Burning:
Sure you ripped it, but can you burn it! Take a look at Toast 8 for all you’re burning needs. It’ll even compress DVD’s and re-encode them as needed. Awesome piece of software, definitely worth the money. - http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html

Quick File Uploads:
On windows, if you had to upload a file quickly, you probably tossed it on YouSendIt or ImageShack, but luckily for everyone, you can use QuickShareIt now which is the absolute easiest way to share ANY type of file. - http://www.quickshareit.com/

Video Codecs:
On Windows, you find a copy of the ever so hidden Kazaa Lite Codec Pack and you can instantly view every type of file, on Mac, not so much. Well, not anymore, take a look at the Codec pack that we’ve compiled, it should solve most of your issues. - http://blog.twenty08.com/2006/12/27/codec-pack-for-all-the-new-mac-users/

That’s it for now, I’ll cover more as I come across them. Enjoy!