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Ask YC: Mac virgin wants to know, what would you install?
Previously due to work and other reasons (I have a large amount of windows knowledge) I have been a windows user. This week, my first mac book pro arrived.
I'm looking for developer tools and tweaks, and cool programs that I'd know if I was a mac regular. On windows I'd point myself to sysinternals programs, registry hacks like opening a command prompt in a folder from explorer and registering dll's from a right click, tortoisesvn, putty, etc. For background, I'm doing development in rails at the moment.
So what do you suggest? So far I have quicksilver and growl.
- moog 19y agoTextmate, Transmit, CocoaMySQL. A nightly build of WebKit AKA Safari is much faster than Safari out-of-the-box. You can get it here: http://nightly.webkit.org/ http://nightly.webkit.org/
- mattculbreth 19y agoTextmate of course. After that I'd get MacFUSE from Google Code for connection to Unix boxes, CheckOff for simple task lists, Twitterrific, xPad for notes, pgAdmin3 for PostgreSQL, Mailplane for GMail accounts, iWork08 or NeoOffice for Office apps, Parallels for virtual machines, and Adium for chatting. You're all set then!
- fiaz 19y agoI always get cool stuff from the following links. You'll learn a hell of a lot from what you find here and it will be useful virtually everyday: http://del.icio.us/tag/mac+osx http://del.icio.us/tag/mac+osx http://del.icio.us/tag/macosx http://del.icio.us/tag/macosx http://del.icio.us/tag/mac http://del.icio.us/tag/mac http://del.icio.us/tag/osx http://del.icio.us/tag/osx You'll also discover all the cool ways Macs are being used and it might even give you some new ideas on how you can use your Mac in ways that are not possible on Windows. I would also suggest that you first see if there is a way to install ANYTHING Unixy via MacPorts (as posted by another user). This is a VITAL component for developing on Mac OSX.
- boredguy8 19y agoIt's not a developer tool, but it does mean you can put your MacBook Pro -on- your lap. http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049 http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049 I'm also a big fan of SubEthaEdit for collaborative editing. http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/ http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/
- bayareaguy 19y agoFirst, the basics: Signup with the Apple Developer Connection (ADC)[1]. After that you will want to install XCode. You can get that from the ADC or from the install cd. You should then install macports[2] so that you can easily get BSD tools and utilities. There is also a friendly GUI shareware app called Port Authority[3] you can use to maintain your ports tree. [1] - http://developer.apple.com http://developer.apple.com [2] - http://www.macports.org http://www.macports.org [3] - http://www.codebykevin.com/portauthority.html http://www.codebykevin.com/portauthority.html I'll skip the whole code editor issue. XCode has one and you'll probably want to use some other one you already know about in addition to it anyways. Some of my must-have utilities: Disk Inventory X [4], so you can see where all your space went. Hex Fiend [5] is a good open source no-frills hex editor. [4] - http://www.derlien.com http://www.derlien.com [5] - http://ridiculousfish.com/hexfiend http://ridiculousfish.com/hexfiend When I need to write technical documentation suitable for printing, I use Scrivener[6], with MultiMarkdown[7], TexShop[8] and MacTex[9]. [6] - http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html [7] - http://fletcherpenney.net/MultiMarkdown http://fletcherpenney.net/MultiMarkdown [8] - http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop [9] - http://www.tug.org/mactex http://www.tug.org/mactex Finally, here are a few things I've already posted to YC in the past. FreeDup - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=89078 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=89078 KeyCue - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=97555 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=97555 Top 100 Essential Mac Applications - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=110233 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=110233
- bayareaguy 19y agoOne last thing: if you're going to play with Arc[10] you'll want MzScheme[11]. [10] - http://www.arclanguage.org http://www.arclanguage.org [11] - http://www.plt-scheme.org/software/mzscheme http://www.plt-scheme.org/software/mzscheme
- ericb 19y agoI installed macports. Before I get to deep into this, is this error obvious to anyone? Note--I do see it's a missing folder, but what is unclear is why I don't have it, and whether it's a part of something larger I'm missing. When I run: sudo port install putty ------------ Error: Target org.macports.extract returned: shell command " cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_textproc_expat/work" && gzip -dc /opt/local/var/macports/distfiles/expat/expat-2.0.1.tar.gz | /usr/bin/gnutar --no-same-owner -xf - " returned error 127 Command output: sh: /usr/bin/gnutar: No such file or directory gzip: stdout: Broken pipe Error: The following dependencies failed to build: gtk1 gettext expat libiconv ncurses ncursesw glib1 pkgconfig Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.
- axod 19y agoI don't actually bother installing much desktop software these days. Just a good text editor, browser, subversion...
- optimal 19y agoThat's where I'm at, too--just keep it simple. vim, svn, FoxBug, and I'm all set. I believe simplicity correlates with productivity.
- axod 19y agoAgreed. And if you keep your desktop light, you can switch to working on another desktop easily. There are some pretty usable webapps out there these days.
- comatose_kid 19y agoVienna is a great free RSS reader. Colloquy is great for IRC.
- curi 19y agoWhy do you like colloquy? I found it barely adequate.
- a-priori 19y agoI find Colloquy is fine (though it has a bad habit of pinning the CPU every now and then...), but there's nothing special about it. I'd switch in an instant if someone suggested a superior alternative. What do you suggest for an OSX IRC client?
- inklesspen 19y agoX-Chat Aqua is good, though unmaintained.
- jrsims 19y agoIf you're a terminal junkie, then try installing 'irssi' over MacPorts. Love it.
- curi 19y ago/upvote
- mcavalletto 19y agoFor what it's worth, the apps I normally install on a new development box include TextMate, Cyberduck, QuickSilver, OmniGraffle Pro, Photoshop, and Skype.
- optimal 19y agoI don't have much to add, but how do you like your MBP so far? I've had mine for almost a year and like it very much. I liked my Dell laptop running Ubuntu, but I do prefer the (more expensive) Mac hardware. The fan runs almost silently when compared to the Dell and, okay, it's just a nicer design too.
- ericb 19y agoI like it very much so far! I don't have a nagging paranoia that I've somehow got a virus. I like the quiet, and design itself. It's also faster all-around, and slicker. The only downside at all so far--I can't stand the way the home and end keys work and I'm having trouble with not having ctrl-C/ctrl-V and ctrl-Z work--the apple key does those functions, but on my keyboard, I find that key to be more awkward. It's screwing with my keyboard shortcut mojo.
- curi 19y agoyou can swap cmd and ctrl keys if you want, in the keyboard area of system preferences. you can also change caplocks there to something more useful. for home/end is the problem them not moving the cursor? try cmd-up-arrow and cmd-down-arrow
- ericb 19y agoI'll try the swap asap for command and ctrl. That's great-- Thanks! In windows, home and end jump to the end of line/beginning of line, so I frequently hit shift-home or shift-end to select a whole line of text, then I copy or cut and move it. I found app-specific hacks here: http://www.starryhope.com/tech/apple/2006/keyfixer/ http://www.starryhope.com/tech/apple/2006/keyfixer/ but I haven't checked out how it works yet, as I think I can add Thunderbird and other programs myself. Or I'll just re-adjust...
- curi 19y agofor line, cmd + left/right arrow (+ shift)
- curi 19y agono one has mentioned installing firefox yet. plus web developer extensions. also get VLC for playing video files and DVDs
- jotto 19y agothe only reason to install firefox 2 or firefox 3 is for the developer extensions, namely firebug. safari is much faster and feels better to use because of the natural OS X interface.
- curi 19y agoi also prefer safari. but another reason to use firefox is in combination with Spaces, which isn't very good at having an app's windows divided between spaces. (yes there is a setting to change this, but it has its own downsides)
- inklesspen 19y agoPerian and NicePlayer are required for watching random bits of video from the rest of the world. http://perian.org/ http://perian.org/ http://niceplayer.sourceforge.net/ http://niceplayer.sourceforge.net/
- m0nty 19y agoI spent a long time looking for a decent, free text editor. I eventually found two: Komodo Edit and Text Wrangler. The only reasonable terminal program is iTerm, although I'd give it up to get a Mac port of PuTTy.
- Alex3917 19y agoAIM: Adium IRC: Snak RSS: NewsFireRSS Notes: FreeMind Newsgroups: Unison Misc: Aquamacs, AppFresh, WhatSize, Flip4Mac, Twitterific If you go to Startup School then you should also have a copy of SubEthaEdit installed. It's a text editor for mac that lets you take notes collaboratively in real time.
- jrsims 19y agoWhy Snak for $29 when you can Colloquy for free? http://colloquy.info/ http://colloquy.info/ Also, if you're a terminal freak and want a good text mode IRC client, I probably don't have to tell you that you can install 'irssi' over MacPorts. Real hackers use irssi. :)
- axod 19y agowhy install an IRC client when you can just http://www.mibbit.com http://www.mibbit.com :)
- harbinjer 19y agoI really want to second the FreeMind suggestion. I don't use it every day, but its a great way to brainstorm or take notes, etc.
- bouncingsoul 19y agoHonestly, I would hold off installing a bunch of software until you have a need for it – or at least until you can appreciate the problem it solves. OS X comes with a lot of tools out of the box, and I think it'd be better to stick with that stuff until you outgrow it or are no longer satisfied with it. For example, people will recommend the VLC player, but QuickTime with the Perian plugin is what I use: more stable than VLC and plays all the formats. And it's one less app. I didn't use Quicksilver for much more than a launcher when I had it. The Spotlight menu in OS X 10.5 is pretty much as fast as Quicksilver for launching apps. So maybe wait to install Quicksilver. Same with Adium: iChat is good enough for me. And people recommend Growl, but I found it more annoying than helpful. Pretty much every third party app registers itself, which means seeing tons of alerts I don't care about. (Unless you go into the Growl preference pane and unregister everything, which made Growl too high maintenance for me.) The only essential things I'd recommend (again, only get them if they make sense to you): TinkerTool http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html – Gives easy access to hidden system preferences. Perian http://perian.org/ http://perian.org/ – A plugin for QuickTime that lets it play all the formats it doesn't play. Paparazzi! http://www.derailer.org/paparazzi/ http://www.derailer.org/paparazzi/ – Makes taking webpage screenshots easy. Service Scrubber http://www.manytricks.com/servicescrubber/ http://www.manytricks.com/servicescrubber/ – Lets you prune the Services menu. (Don't worry about installing this until you see a need for it.) TextWrangler http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/ http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/ – Free text editor with terminal integration and excellent file search capabilities. Transmission http://www.transmissionbt.com/ http://www.transmissionbt.com/ – My favorite bittorrent client.
- brianloveswords 19y agoOh I completely disagree about the Spotlight menu being as fast as Quicksilver for launching apps but even besides that Quicksilver can do so much more. You can: set global shortcuts for damn near anything you'd want to do; add a line to a text file (for quick note taking); send a quick email; move files... And for the Quicktime+Perian vs VLC thing, Quicktime will be decent enough for xvid or divx (though you'll take a small performance hit for it), but if you use MKV you will definitely want to use VLC -- Quicktime doesn't give you the option of switching languages or embeded subtitles, and the performance is awful. But I do agree with the Transmission recommendation, it's really a great BT client: clean, not nearly as bloated as Azureus. Unless you really need some of Azureus' more advanced functions, you'll find Transmission can cover everything you want.
- hernan7 19y agoLearn some Unix -- Bourne shell and all the usual suspects like awk, sed, grep. OS X has Unix under the hood, you might as well make use of it.
- ericb 19y agoI'm already down with shell scripting, but otherwise that is generally good advice.
- makecheck 19y agoI've used SCPlugin for Subversion access on the Mac desktop, it has a similar feel to TortoiseSVN on Windows. I would also tinker with Apple's Automator (a built-in application) and look at the Finder's Folder Actions (which Automator supports). With surprisingly little effort, you can create some very powerful commands to use when right-clicking desktop items. Finally, perhaps the Mac equivalent of a "registry hack" is the command-line "defaults" program (also built in). It allows you to explore and change the preferences of many programs. You can turn on hidden features and other cool stuff that way.
- PStamatiou 19y agoI just got a Macbook Air and listed the first things I installed/uninstalled when I got it. Might be of use. It's at the end of this post: http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/06/how-i-got-a-macbook-air-for-15-dollars http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/06/how-i-got-a-macbook-air-...
- mrtron 19y agoHappy with the air? I really considered getting one and a powerful desktop...but decided to wait.
- inovica 19y agoI love mine. I was sceptical at first but its been a lovely machine so far.... and I've owned 10+ Macs in my time.
- akkartik 19y agoIt's lighter than an X61, yet has a larger screen. That's what the thin-ness buys me. I'd still have gone with a thinkpad if they came with anything but #$%# vista.
- jey 19y agoQuicksilver, Adium, MacPorts
- icey 19y agoDarwinPorts
- therubberduckie 19y agoCoda has been the answer to my prayers, I hope it helps you http://www.panic.com/coda/ http://www.panic.com/coda/
- asjo 19y agoDebian, actually.
- CRASCH 19y agoParallels or VMware. I have a mac book pro and I find that having access to windows and Ubuntu is great. The best of all three worlds.
- prakash 19y agoThis from Marc Andreessen's blog: http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_ideal_os_x_.html http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_ideal_os_x_.html and one more: http://bestmacsoftware.org/ http://bestmacsoftware.org/
- pkaler 19y agoCheck out the MacBreak Weekly Picks. MBW is probably the best Mac podcast out there. The hosts recommend a product each week. http://mbwpicks.com/ http://mbwpicks.com/
- 1gor 19y agoemacs22
- hsuresh 19y agoAquamacs is very good
- bprater 19y agoI really like Coda for text-editing, especially if you want an integrated FTP editor, text editor and preview in one app. Textmate + Cyberduck + Safari is great, but it's a lot of extra clicking around.
- bfioca 19y agohttp://www.rescuetime.com http://www.rescuetime.com :)
- johnca 19y agoText utils: TypeIt4Me (expands your codes into frequently-typed text) and JumpCut (multiple clipboard). MenuCalendarClock replaces your menubar clock with with a menu of a simple calendar (ties in with iCal too, but i don't even use that). As soon as Aion is updated for Leopard get it if you deal with time zones. Alarm Clock 2 wakes you up to your selected iTunes playlist (with gradually increasing volume). UnRarX deals with .rar files.
- christefano 19y agoI'm surprised nobody has mentioned Path Finder yet. It's a serious file manager that makes the Finder look like it was designed by Fisher-Price. http://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/ http://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/