>Here’s the list of my favourite Mac OS X applications:
- Parallels Desktop — For running Windows and Linux in virtual machines. With Windows XP inside it, for testing web pages in Internet Explorer (6, 7 and 8 all have their own dedicated VM). (€80)
- Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional — Version 9 probably runs better on my Intel Mac with Snow Leopard. I didn’t need all the extra stuff in the Professional edition, but there was no Standard edition for Mac. (version 9 is $450)
- Cheap Impostor — For creating A3 and A4 booklets. Cheap, effective and fast. ($35)
- NovaMind Express — For mind mapping, use it for interaction designs for web sites. ($50)
- Firefox with the Firebug, Web Developer, Weave, CyberSearch, AdBlock Plus and SessionAlive extensions — Nothing beats the fox. (all free)
- Acorn — Fairly simple image manipulation.
- Skitch — Easy and simple image editing and sharing for everyone. (free)
- GIMP — Advanced image manipulation, includingremoval of color profiles. Requires X11. (free)
- NeoOffice — Complete office suite, based on OpenOffice.org code. No need to purchase Microsoft Office anymore, it even supports the new .docx and .xlsx file types. (free, donations welcome)
- Skype — For video conferencing, also with non-Mac people; iChat video quality is much higher though. (free)
- iWork — Nothing beats Keynote presentations! ($79)
- Flip4Mac — Be able to watch Windows Media videos (WMV). (free version available)
- iShowU — Screen video capture. ($20)
- iTerm — Best terminal program for the Mac – beats Apple’s built-in Terminal application in terms of productivity and usability (free, donations welcome.)
- iPartition — For dynamically changing hard drive partitions, includes resizing functionality. ($50)
And I’m considering adding the following to my toolset:
- Pixelmator — For real Mac-style image manipulation. Question is whether it can do what I do with GIMP, including the removal of color profiles and such ($59).
- Opacity — For creating very nice-looking icons, fast ($90).
Updates:
- Sept. 11, 2008: Considering Pixelmator instead of Acorn, the latter just does not have enough features. And added iPartition as a favourite app.
- Sept. 17, 2008: Added Chicken of the VNC and Chax and listed the price of iPartition.
- March 9, 2010: Updated information on Parallels. Using a different set of Firefox extensions. Removed SuperDocker.
- March 13, 2010: Added the SessionAlive extension for Firefox and Skitch.
- March 31, 2010: Removed OmniPlan, Leap, Chax. Changed the link to GIMP on OS X. Added Acorn and added Web Developer extension for Firefox. Updated some descriptions.
znerd 