GTDTech: October 2007 Archives
I've been using Mac OS X for a few months now and thought I'd list my 7 absolute must-have applications. You could probably live without some of these, but your life simply wouldn't be as great as it could be! All of the programs listed below don't cost a cent.
QuickSilver
If you get only one application for your new Mac, this is it. QuickSilver is a launcher (similar to SpotLight) on steroids. With a few keystrokes, not only will you be able to launch your applications within milliseconds, you can also move and copy files or send emails without touching your mouse. You do have to take a bit of time to learn how to use this powerful tool, but this is made so much fun by the excellent video tutorials you'll feel as if you solved the Rubik's Cube. You'll also look like an absolute wizard in front of your friends and even make Linux command line geeks look like retards. Start with this excellent video tutorial on YouTube.
Camino
Camino just makes more sense than Safari, Mac OS X's built-in browser. Camino is based on Mozilla, and as such has vastly more plugins and addons available. Unlike Safari's Search box which only searches Google, with a little fiddling Camino allows you to choose from multiple search engines, including Wikipedia and del.icio.us. And unlike Firefox, Camino is just a bit more 'native' to Mac, including KeyChain access. UPDATE: After a bit of a spin with Camino, I must admit I prefer Firefox over Camino, it has a better search toolbar and many more extensions are available.
Adium
Adium is a slick multi-protocol chat client that allows you to chat with your mates, regardless whether they're using MSN, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk or Jabber. It also quacks at you whenever you receive a message. What more could you want?
Smultron
Smultron is a great little open source text editor if you're going to do any coding. It's a Cocoa App, which means it's built from the ground up for Mac OS X, rather than being ported from another OS. It's features include are tabs, line numbers, support for syntax colouring for many different
languages, functions list, support for text encodings, snippets, a
toolbar, a status bar, preview, split window, multi-document find and
replace with regular expressions, possibility to show invisible
characters and many more! If you want a WYSIWYG web editor instead, have a look at NVU.
VLC
You'll quickly find out that QuickTime doesn't play many of the (nefarious) videos you can download from the net these days, including anything encoded using Windows Media format. You can struggle with plug-ins, or you could simply get the best video player out there.
HandBrake
So you've bought the entire collection of Planet Earth just in time for the holidays. However, you don't want to carry all the DVDs around with you. Enter HandBrake to quickly and easily rip all your DVDs to mpeg format so you can store the entire series on your 4GB Flash Drive.
NeoOffice
If you need a good solid full-featured Office suite for the Mac and don't wish to fork out for Microsoft Mac Office, NeoOffice is your friend. It's based on OpenOffice, but ported specifically to integrate better with Mac OS X. It can edit all your Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.
QuickSilver
If you get only one application for your new Mac, this is it. QuickSilver is a launcher (similar to SpotLight) on steroids. With a few keystrokes, not only will you be able to launch your applications within milliseconds, you can also move and copy files or send emails without touching your mouse. You do have to take a bit of time to learn how to use this powerful tool, but this is made so much fun by the excellent video tutorials you'll feel as if you solved the Rubik's Cube. You'll also look like an absolute wizard in front of your friends and even make Linux command line geeks look like retards. Start with this excellent video tutorial on YouTube.Camino
Camino just makes more sense than Safari, Mac OS X's built-in browser. Camino is based on Mozilla, and as such has vastly more plugins and addons available. Unlike Safari's Search box which only searches Google, with a little fiddling Camino allows you to choose from multiple search engines, including Wikipedia and del.icio.us. And unlike Firefox, Camino is just a bit more 'native' to Mac, including KeyChain access. UPDATE: After a bit of a spin with Camino, I must admit I prefer Firefox over Camino, it has a better search toolbar and many more extensions are available.
Adium
Adium is a slick multi-protocol chat client that allows you to chat with your mates, regardless whether they're using MSN, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk or Jabber. It also quacks at you whenever you receive a message. What more could you want?Smultron
Smultron is a great little open source text editor if you're going to do any coding. It's a Cocoa App, which means it's built from the ground up for Mac OS X, rather than being ported from another OS. It's features include are tabs, line numbers, support for syntax colouring for many different
languages, functions list, support for text encodings, snippets, a
toolbar, a status bar, preview, split window, multi-document find and
replace with regular expressions, possibility to show invisible
characters and many more! If you want a WYSIWYG web editor instead, have a look at NVU.VLC
You'll quickly find out that QuickTime doesn't play many of the (nefarious) videos you can download from the net these days, including anything encoded using Windows Media format. You can struggle with plug-ins, or you could simply get the best video player out there. HandBrake
So you've bought the entire collection of Planet Earth just in time for the holidays. However, you don't want to carry all the DVDs around with you. Enter HandBrake to quickly and easily rip all your DVDs to mpeg format so you can store the entire series on your 4GB Flash Drive.NeoOffice
If you need a good solid full-featured Office suite for the Mac and don't wish to fork out for Microsoft Mac Office, NeoOffice is your friend. It's based on OpenOffice, but ported specifically to integrate better with Mac OS X. It can edit all your Word, Excel or PowerPoint files. 
