It has been a while after I wrote about my first experiences of Macbook Pro and OS X. During this time I have been getting myself familiar with the keyboard (It has taken me surprisingly long to get used to the different keyboard layout and the “missing keys”) and figuring out what software is worth installing (and what is not). This entry contains my list of OS X Software, which I have found useful or just fun.
1Password password manager is one of the best password management tools I have seen. Its browser integration is elegant and seamless. There is no need to open the password management software and copy the correct credentials to the login form. One can simply select the preferred login information from the browser’s toolbar. If one have to use Windows occasionally, it is good to know that there is a public beta of 1Password password manager for Windows as well, which enables the user to sync one’s credential database between Windows and OS X.
FreeMind mind mapping software. I find it easy and normal way to structure my thoughts by using mind maps. FreeMind is a free mind mapping tool, which I have been using for years now. Since I have found it very useful for visualizing my ideas, It was natural selection to this list.
IntelliJ Idea Ultimate Edition. I earn my living for developing software. Thus, it is only natural that I want myself to have the tools I enjoy using. I have been using both Eclipse and Netbeans, and they are great pieces of software as well. However, the only IDE, which makes software development fun is IntelliJ Idea. One key factor behind my purchase decision was the licensing of IntelliJ Idea, which permits me to install the software on different operating systems as long as I don’t use them at the same time. It is always nice to see that not every company out there is interested in only maximizing their profits, and that some companies value their customers enough to give them little perks like this one. Jetbrains is also offering a free community edition of IntelliJ Idea, which is an easy way to try IntelliJ Idea, if you don’t want to restrict yourself to the 30 days trial period of the evaluation version.
NeoOffice office suite is an improved version of the OpenOffice.org office suite, which is significantly faster than OpenOffice.org, because its code base contains code written specifically for OS X operating system. However, since its document formats are exactly the same than the ones used by OpenOffice.org, there are no compatibility problems between them. OpenOffice.org is in my opinion the best free office suite when you are using Windows operating system. However, the OS X version of OpenOffice.org is painfully slow when comparing it to the Windows version. Luckily for us OS X users, the guys behind NeoOffice have come to the rescue.
Steam. For a passionate gamer like myself, Steam is indeed a very easy choice. Even though the amount games, which are available also to OS X, is not so great yet, the numbers are rising steadily. Luckily (or unfortunately), the newest versions of my favorite game series are available for OS X (Civilization IV and Football Manager 2010).
TextMate text editor. The basic installation of OS X is really lacking a powerful text editor, which is powerful enough to provide good support for programmers, but simple enough so that can be used to edit text documents as well. A friend of mine, who is also a Mac user, recommended TextMate for me, and I fell instantly in love with it. Its user interface is very simple, but its features are rich enough for programmer as well.
Transmit FTP and SFTP client. There is a couple of reasons why I like transmit so much. First, it is very fast. It is much faster than any FTP program, which I have used in Windows. Second, I like its user interface, which clearly separates the source and target directories from each other. I also tried other alternatives like Cyberduck, which is available without charge, but I never got used to the idea that there is no clear separation between source and target destinations. Perhaps I have just get used to user interfaces, which separates source and target directories, during my years of a Windows user.
TrueCrypt disc encryption software. TrueCrypt is nice utility, which can be used to encrypt entire partition or storage device such hard drive or USB flash drive. I think it is a very useful tool for encrypting USB flash drives. I find it a good idea to encrypt my USB flash drives, because they are small and therefore they can get lost easily. Even though I usually find my lost USB sticks some where inside my apartment, I can sleep my nights a lot better knowing that no one will get anything important out of them (well, at least not in my lifetime).
VLC media player. VLC media player was an easy pick for me, because I have been a happy user of it for a long time. It is easy to use and I have never had big problems with it. Therefore it is easy to say that it has earned its place on my must have list.
I have now introduced my list of “must have” software for OS X. I have also installed other great pieces of software to my Macbook Pro, but since I do not use them on a regular basis, I have left them out from this list. If you feel that I have forgotten something or simply just want to share your list, leave a comment to the comment section. Tips concerning useful software are always welcome.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
very well done my friend (Y)
keep on !!!
Thank you for the compliment. I am already writing a new blog post about quality management in software projects. I am hoping that I can finish it during the next few days.
I can’t figure out how to subscribe to the comments via RSS . I want to keep abrest of this, how do I do that?
Do you you mean that you want to subscribe the comments of the entire blog as an RSS or?-)
You certainly deserve a round of applause for your post and more specifically, your blog in general. Very high quality material.
Thank you for your kind words.