Rob Wilkerson

OS X Software

As I've already mentioned in a number of places, I'm new to OS X. I expect this page to represent a living document maybe more than any other. That said, I still think I have something to offer. Or maybe I'm just optimistic.

Listed here are the applications that I use with any sort of regularity and have found to be good or, in some cases, truly outstanding tools.

Internet & Communication

Firefox (Free)

Hey, just because it's obvious doesn't mean it should be ignored, right? Standards, tabs, extensions, automatic feed detection, etc. Whatever it was, it seems like these guys did it first (yes, I know that in some cases they didn't actually do it first). And best. The ad said "Get Firefox." So I did. It's also available for multiple platforms.

Adium X (Free)

A very slick, multi-protocol instant messaging client. And very configurable. From my dock, Calvin (of "& Hobbes" fame) tells me whether I'm online, offline or away. That's pretty cool.

Mail (Free...when you buy OS X)

Although it's lacking (severely, in my opinion) when synchronizing with an Exchange server, it's pretty strong in every other way that matters to me. I use GMail for most of my email activity so I don't have a lot of requirements for my local mail client.

Remote Desktop Connection (Free)

Microsoft's utility for connecting to a remote Windows machine serves its purpose just fine.  And for what it's worth, the latest 2.0 beta is outstanding.  Very OS X-like.  Almost feels native.

RDC Menu ($24.95)

A handy utility if you find that you have to connect to multiple remote desktops. It offers a menu from which to launch any one of many stored remote desktop configurations. Technically, I suppose this belongs in the System Tools & Utilities group, but it's so tightly coupled with the Remote Desktop Connection application that I decided to just put it here.

Virtualization

VMWare Fusion ($79.99)

I made the switch from Parallels. VMWare is cross-platform, it's faster and less memory intensive and, frankly, its "Unity" mode is much tighter than Parallels' "Coherence" mode.

Parallels ($79.95)

I love the idea of virtualization. I love virtual machines. I was an avid VMWare user on Windows and I picked up Parallels on Mac before VMWare entered that space. I think I'll just stick with Parallels for now - it's quite good - even though the cross-platform nature of VMWare's offering is appealing. 

Development

Eclipse (Free)

It's got some adorable little quirks and some less adorable little quirks. It can also be a little complex to maintain, but all-in-all, it's an outstanding multi-purpose development environment. I've learned to live with the quirks and complexity in order to do all of my development (ColdFusion, PHP, Perl, SQL, CSS, HTML, JavaScript) in different editors contained within a single tool. Very convenient.

ScriptEditor (Free...when you buy OS X)

AppleScript is the one language I currently choose to develop outside of Eclipse. To be fair, I don't do much of it, but still. Apple's built-in ScriptEditor does what I need it to do.

Productivity

QuickSilver (Free)

It took me a long time to "get it" and I still don't use 1/10th of it's immense functionality, but this is a power user's wet dream.

NeoOffice (Free)

I guess I'm not a very productive guy, but I don't have a lot of need for the traditional "productivity" suite of tools. NeoOffice is free, it looks good and it seems to do a solid job for my purposes so it's a winner in my book. It may be great or it may suck for power users, but it works perfectly well for me. And did I mention that it's free?

Multimedia & Graphics

iTunes (Free)

Another obvious choice, but I dig it. One application to legally download, manage, rip and burn is all I need or want.

iPhoto (Free...when you buy OS X)

Also obvious (I hope this doesn't become a trend). Another area where I don't have a tremendous number of requirements. Just keep track of my photos, that's it. I'm easy.

FlickrUploadr (Free)

I use the service so I use the tool. Why make things more difficult than they need to be?

Personal Finance

Okay, this is the one area where I've found the Mac software truly lacking. Badly. Moneydance comes close, but it's not where I want it to be. Others aren't even in the ballpark. I need serious online banking support and none of the other players offer that. To be honest, I've settled on Parallels + WinXP + Quicken for my financial needs.

That said, I've just started trying Wesabe and have downloaded their upload tool - aptly named Wesabe Uploader (Free). I'll let you know how that works out for me.

System Tools & Utilities

I guess I'm kind of a gadget guy. I seriously dig those obscure little tools that do one thing and kick ass when they do it. Those things that solve the niggly little annoyances that just seem to get in the way of your workflow. This section includes many of those and more.

iTerm (Free)

The terminal that ships with OS X works just fine, but I'm completely spoiled by tabs. That's honestly my sole criteria for preferring iTerm to the native terminal application.

MagiCal (Free)

A system clock replacement utility that I like so much I blogged it. Seriously, it really is outstanding. I wish I could find something just as good for Windows. Read the post . Don't cost nothin'.

Growl (Free)

There's nothing better for system notifications. And so many applications have provided integration with it. If you want, you can probably get notified when your waffles are done cooking (I just made that up. You can't really do that).

KeePassX (Free)

A very good password database. I had been using its Windows counterpart for years and stuck with it in OS X because I didn't have to make any changes to my data. The OS X version opened up my Windows kdb file without hassle. Even now, I have a single kdb file that is shared between my OS X machine and my WindowsXP virtual machine . This version lacks a lot of the functionality of its Windows sibling, but is still quite adequate. Especially when supplemented with 1Passwd.

1Passwd ($29.95)

This is another one of those really great utilities that is right on par with MagiCal for usefulness, in my opinion. It can be set to capture input supplied to any web form. When that page is visited again, just push a button to fill in the stored info. It integrates nicely into the OS X keychain for tight security and supports all of the three major Mac browsers: Firefox, Safari & Camino. A huge time saver for sites that require a login. Or shipping information.

AllBookmarks (Free)

A nice utility by the makers of 1Passwd that sits in the menu bar and provides access to all bookmarks stored in any of the three major Mac browsers (see above for a list of those browsers). Additionally, it has access to all of the 1Passwd bookmarks and provides access to those pages where forms have been stored. Click a 1Passwd bookmark and the page is opened, the form is populated and, if the auto-submit option is enabled, the form is submitted. A great click-saver.

Onyx (Free)

A system tweaker. There are approximately 5,273,209,273 of these out there (don't try counting, I made that number up for effect), but this one was free and does a lot of stuff.

UNO (Free)

Unify the OS X user interface across applications. This wasn't a really big deal to me (which is odd, but appearance does matter to me in these things), but it is nice to have a consistent, system-wide user interface.

VirtueDesktops (Free)

I was crushed to learn while tracking down the URI for this product that development has ceased. This is a terrific virtual desktop application. It's demise is unfortunate. Leopard's Spaces better be good.

SpiritedAway (Free)

Reduce the window clutter on your desktop. SpiritedAway hides windows that haven't been active for a user-specified period of time.

SuperDuper! ($27.95)

An easy way to create a bootable system backup. Easy to use and allows scheduled backups if you buy it. I've had some trouble with it, but I think it's a problem with my system rather than the software.

Flip4Mac (Free)

Run Windows media on the Mac using this QuickTime plugin. You'll want this if you plan to watch movies on CNN.com, for example. It can't handle licensed Windows material (DRM), however.

AppDelete (Free)

From the I-couldn't-think-of-a-way-to-say-it-any-better files comes this quote from the developer's site: "AppDelete is an application for Macs that will delete the application you choose and any associated items (files and folders) that belong to that application. Now you will no longer have to hunt through your system to find these items and delete them manually. Or worse, just let them sit on your Mac forever even though the application is long gone!" Sure enough...it does that.

BitPim (Free)

This is just nifty as hell. I can sync information between my computer and my phone via Bluetooth. Cool. I can also transfer pictures and backup my text messages. It's not the prettiest of applications, but useful as hell, I've found. A word of caution: It doesn't work with all phones. Check whether it works with yours before spending a lot of time with it.