OSX Essentials

As more people I know are switching to OSX machines, I inevitably get the question “What should I install?”

So here’s my list of essential tools to jazz up your OSX machine.

Virtualization

Parallels for OSX version 2.x.

I haven’t upgraded to version 3 yet - mostly because I’ve heard people complain about stability issues. Although I’d love to use VMWare Fusion for cross platform compatible VM images - it seems to make my AirPort behave weirdly. I’m apparently not alone.

Although Parallels is not as tuneable as Xen, and not as standardized as VMWare - I’ve had few issues with Parallels. It works - and it’s pretty damn cheap @ ~$90 CAD.

Extra OSes

Ubuntu 6.06 Alternate Install

This should fall under Parallels somehow, but I do all my real UNIX work in Ubuntu. OSX is still a weird bastard child of NextStep and BSD with a good dose of GNU thrown in the mix. Nothing behaves quite the way you’re used to with respect to any other UNIX.

I just gave up and use Linux. I keep a backup image just in case I need to do an emergency restore.

Swiss Army Knife

QuickSilver

Bar none - QuickSilver is the most awesome UI enhancement I’ve ever used. Everything I do goes through Quicksilver now. Calendaring events, launching applications, picking menu items, address book lookup…

Honestly - if I didn’t have QuickSilver - I’d switch back to Ubuntu Linux.

Chat

Adium

GAIM for OSX. Use MSN, AIM, Jabber/GMail, Yahoo - pretty much everything except IRC in one client.

X-Chat Aqua

For those times you need IRC

Skype

…or VoIP

Blogging

Ecto

It works. It stays out of my way. What more do I really want?

Web

Firefox

It still beats the snot out of Safari because of all the plugins available. But if you really need a fast fast browser, use Safari.

Dev

bazaar

You are using source control aren’t you

MacPython

Skip Apple’s build of Python. It’s broken.

GTD

LifeBalance + The Missing Sync

Yes. I still use a Palm. The battery life is just too good on it to go to something else. LifeBalance is one of the few outliner apps I know of that uses GTD style contexts, and it syncs between the laptop and the Palm. Mix in a QuickSilver keybinding to launch LB on my desktop with 1 keystroke and it’s a pretty good way of capturing all my tasks.

OmniOutliner Pro

OOP is a great tool for those times when I really want a good outliner, and not just task collection. Unfortunately - no Palm sync.

Video

VLC

Play virtually any video or audio file format - and it’s free.

Handbrake

Copy your DVDs!

Office

NeoOffice

Read/write MS Office files with a free, but slow Office suite.

P2P

Azureus

Again - slow, but feature rich. Having the ScaneRSS plugin helps to automatically download TV programs from tvrss.net too.

Miscellaneous stuff

Citrix ICA Client
xPad
SideNote

Things you shouldn’t do:

Do not mess with Spotlight. You’ll regret it.
Do not decide to see what happens when Parallels runs more VMs than you’ve got physical memory.