9 ms·

Power user replacements for OS X default apps

155 points by subelsky 16y ago

stuhacking 16y ago
Is a power user now someone who needs all their documents synced using some cloud service? Aside from using Chrome, Quicksilver and Emacs, I find most of the other listed OS X defaults to be perfectly adequate for my needs. I'll handle my own replication and backups, thanks.
- jalewis 16y ago
  I used to do all my backups locally to a NAS and various USB drives. Dropbox allowed me to sync between multiple computers running different OSes which is not an easy thing to do normally. I've found myself syncing .emacs, .ssh/config and other customizations across systems and it's so much easier. Another bonus for Dropbox is the ability to share folders with other users. It makes sharing docs so easy because everyone sees the same version.
- sudont 16y ago
  Furthermore, what’s with the recent hate on application-level switching? Just about ever “power user” I see nowadays wants Windows 98-esque window switching, despite the fact that the mac window manager is built around an application > window hierarchy. Personally, it’s one of the most aggravating features I have to deal with on XP, so I can’t understand why anyone would want it on their mac.
  - sross 16y ago
    Not answering for everyone, of course, but I find the mac model breaks down when I only want to pull a single window of an app to the foreground. Envisage, if you will, this scenario. I have multiple terminal windows open in the background connected to various services and my current focus is on my fullscreen IDE of choice. Now my IDE has various pieces of information on it and, given that my short term memory isn't what it once was, I would like to always be able refer to it. So I switch to Terminal and ALL the Terminal windows are pulled above the IDE window, often obscuring the piece of information I wanted to reference. It's not that the 98-esque model is necessarily superior, it's rather that it's surprising when windows you haven't requested to see are pulled into the foreground. Now this may be due to me having used `window-centric` switching for many years but after 3 years of owning a mac I still find this behaviour frustrating.
    - weeksie 16y ago
      CMD-` switches between application windows. That might help a bit, I use it constantly; so constantly in fact, that I remapped buffer switching in emacs to that command.
      - pstinnett 16y ago
        Thanks for posting that. Never knew!
      - ot 16y ago
        CMD-` doesn't solve the problem, if you are in an application and you want to bring up a window from another application you still have to use CMD-TAB. But this brings up all the windows from the other application.
        weeksie 16y ago
        You're totally right, I just skimmed the comment before I posted, my bad.
        msbarnett 16y ago
        Yeah, the best solution here is definitely exposé. Invoke, select just the window you want via arrow keys or beginning to type the window's title, hit return, and only that window comes forward.
      - euroclydon 16y ago
        I'm a hater of the App -> Windows paradigm. I just brought up two finder windows, minimized one, CMD-TAB'd to Chrome, then back to Finder, and finally no amount of CMD-` would make the minimised Finder visible. Plus, just how many mouse actions does it take to tile two windows? Two in Win7, a whole lot more in OSX.
    - Stwerner 16y ago
      You might want to check out Visor - http://visor.binaryage.com/ http://visor.binaryage.com/ makes your terminal a roll-down fps-like console, and can handle all the tabs as well. I've found it very useful to solve the exact problem you're having.
  - ot 16y ago
    I find the "application > window" hierarchy breaks horribly Spaces: if you have two windows of the same application in two different spaces (for example, two terminals or two finders) and you focus one window in one space, you go to the other space where the other window was in background and you find it in foreground. Because of this nuisance I never managed to get used to Spaces. There are at least three applications where different windows are "morally" different applications: Terminal, Finder and web browser. I should be able to focus individual windows without bringing to foreground the whole application.
    - jmilloy 16y ago
      In fact, I'd like to be able "attach" a terminal to another app for switching purposes. It's probably the same with finder and browser, (I'd add text editor). A "one task, one app" type of app should have it's functionally-related windows grouped for switching, but a highly multipurpose app where different windows do not serve different functions should be separate.
      - ot 16y ago
        Exactly, that was my point. Applications and "CMD+TAB window groups" should be separate concepts.
      - NickPollard 16y ago
        This is what I use Multiple Desktops for on Ubuntu - I group applications by task, so that each task has one desktop. Then I just switch between desktops, and very rarely between individual applications (as they don't normally overlap). Trying to work on Windows without good multiple desktop support is horrid now.
  - jmilloy 16y ago
    Application level switching makes sense to me when you are working using "one app, one task." Switching from my IDE to chat...? sure bring up my both contacts list and chat window. But a power user is probably using more than one app per task, and is multitasking (or whose task requires many separate subtasks), and of course some of the apps are used in multiple tasks. It would increase productivity if I could easily bring up the windows I'm using for task a, and switch easily to the windows I'm using for task b, even if textmate and a terminal are in use in both tasks. Yeah yeah, we have spaces... the point is that, for me, while purely window-level switching is a poor solution, app level switching is both a poor and often actually anti-productive solution. (I, also, am a longtime windows user now using os x. That's definitely a factor, here)
- subelsky 16y ago
  I'm curious, how do you handle this? Do you have multiple machines? Do you use something like rsync?
  - stuhacking 16y ago
    I use scp to backup the folders I'm interested in. I use git to manage sharing data between machines. (Again, just the stuff I'm interested in.) I don't keep 100% synchronisation between machines. I don't back everything up. I'm happy working at this level of granularity because it allows me to stay selective and not accumulate cruft due to relying on an automated backup of my entire drive. (In my case, backing everything up would result in a lot of useless noise.) I'm not saying it's for everyone, but it works for me.
    - mturmon 16y ago
      You might want to look into rsync as a replacement for scp. Version 2 is built in, but if you follow the directions at: http://www.bombich.com/rsync.html http://www.bombich.com/rsync.html you can build a newer rsync that syncs all metadata.
- imperialWicket 16y ago
  +1 for Quicksilver (adding key bindings to all of your applications and some of there core functionalities definitely supports the 'power user' tag) - and I agree that most of these are just preferred apps, not necessarily power user-specific. Text edit is the other app that gets replaced, BBEdit or UltraEdit for any efforts that just aren't comfortable in vim. I would hesitate to call adding a GUI text editor a 'power user' update, though. The rest of this reads like an ad for the various services (many of which are good, but not indicative of a 'power user'). How can people live without making use of spaces?
  - karanr 16y ago
    Yes, Quicksilver is a great replacement for Spotlight Search. It indexes very fast, and it is very powerful for mundane and time consuming tasks such as moving files from one folder to another, or quickly compressing and email files. All can be achieved at lightning fast speeds with just a few keystrokes. I almost always launch apps with Quicksilver.
tialys 16y ago
Gmail only (for the time being), but Sparrow has become my new mail app of choice. http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/ http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/
- jaxonrice 16y ago
  In a similar vein, I truly love the way Postbox handles my multiple email accounts. http://www.postbox-inc.com/ http://www.postbox-inc.com/
leon_ 16y ago
The most power user replacement would be to replace the OS X window manager with a custom tiling manager.
- spicyj 16y ago
  I don't think you can do that; please correct me if I'm wrong.
  - docgnome 16y ago
    I _think_ you might be able to run a tilling wm in X but that wouldn't exactly replace the wm. I sorta hate the OS X wm which is a major impetus for me to run debian where I can actually chose what wm to use instead of having to obey the almighty menu bar.
    - wahnfrieden 16y ago
      You can run stuff like XMonad, but it only works with things run inside X11, yeah. So there's pretty much no point to it -- might as well install Debian.
oscardelben 16y ago
I think it comes down to personal preferences. I've tried several times to switch to Chrome, but for me Safari is better. For example I like how I can access bookmarks from hotkeys. Same for textedit and terminal, I can't think of any reason to switch, and I've tried several alternatives.
program 16y ago
A Power User that doesn't replace "Archive Utility.app" with The Unarchiver? http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html
- subelsky 16y ago
  that looks really cool; half the reason I wrote this was to find out what gems I am missing.
- emiller829 16y ago
  Wow, thanks for this. I've been using a Mac since 2000, and never came across this gem.
- albemuth 16y ago
  Hmm why? I've never downloaded a zip it couldn't handle. And for creating, tar from the command line.
  - callahad 16y ago
    Then you've never downloaded a password-protected Zip file, a RAR file, a 7-Zip file, or an LZMA / XZ file. Nor have you needed to unpack a CAB, RPM, or XAR archive.
    - pak 16y ago
      I've used 7zX for those rare cases, which is ugly but works. ...In case people don't want to replace the default Archive Utility.
- PCheese 16y ago
  I keep a copy of The Unarchiver around for those odd formats and password-protected archives, but I still leave most things to Archive Utility. I find The Unarchiver is still too buggy for me (things like http://code.google.com/p/theunarchiver/issues/detail?id=215 http://code.google.com/p/theunarchiver/issues/detail?id=215 ).
tkahn6 16y ago
Chrome keep tabs in separate processes (not threads).
- subelsky 16y ago
  Oh cool, I didn't know that - thanks for clarifying. I'll update the post.
  - ajarmoniuk 16y ago
    Now you'll become powerer. Btw, how would you assume that using threads instead of processes leads to less crashing?
    - subelsky 16y ago
      Just lazy thinking when I drafted the post.
      - ajarmoniuk 16y ago
        Good post nonetheless.
- sigzero 16y ago
  With Safari I can right click and copy a image and paste it into another app...every time I try that with Chrome the paste is broken. Fixed maybe?
  - roxstar 16y ago
    I just tried it on linux and it works :/
timtadh 16y ago
I am sorry but this was a pointless article. You can down vote me now.
iqster 16y ago
Just wait for the network connection to go down.
tommypalm 16y ago
Launchbar over Alfred as a replacement for Spotlight. I just prefer the 30 day trial model over limited free usage and then pay for 'power user' features.
woid 16y ago
what about TotalFinder? (warning: I'm the author, but I would still vote for it :-) http://totalfinder.binaryage.com http://totalfinder.binaryage.com
- subelsky 16y ago
  That looks like a great utility. I'm already planning a follow-up post based on what I've learned here!
- retroguy 16y ago
  I bought TotalFinder last week, nice app, I usually uninstall these types of replacement apps after about 5 minutes but i'm very happy - keep up the good work!
- sigzero 16y ago
  That looks really nice. I will try it out when I get back to my Mac.
- imperialWicket 16y ago
  For anyone who doesn't want to use Terminal for file system navigation, a Finder replacement is a must. I'm constantly amazed at how terrible Finder is at its (relatively simple) job. Windows Explorer set the bar pretty low though. There are a number of good Finder alternatives, each with their own perks. I won't steal your thunder here with a list, cause totalfinder is one of my favorites.
- ghrje 16y ago
  TotalFinder is awesome; but I want my rounded corners back. :(
- jeffclark 16y ago
  I downloaded the TotalFinder trial a few months ago and used it for about 20 minutes before throwing a wad of cash at you. It's a really great Finder replacement. Especially if you're rocking a 13" or smaller screen. TotalFinder is the first app I install on a new machine.
- 16y ago
gaiusparx 16y ago
Just realized I'm not a power user if I use Safari. Damn Apple.
- pistoriusp 16y ago
  Me too for: Safari, Dashboard Widgets, Spaces, iTunes, Terminal, Preview, iChat and Keychain. Everything is very standard here in my world.
- Tycho 16y ago
  Safari has some good extensions, like this one (forget its name) that quickly scans a page and tells you what frameworks/servers/technologies were used in its making. Good way to keep track of whats hot in web development.
paul9290 16y ago
iTunes overall is the worst experience on a MAC. For any user who used Windows for a few years and jumps onto a MAC I would bet most find it frustrating! It takes so long to load up and then to transfer music to then listen ... uggh! Thus like the author of this article I use YouTube, Vevo and Pandora to listen to my music collection; either on my desktop or thru my iPhone.
- ugh 16y ago
  iTunes is pretty snappy for me. (Except for the Store which for whatever reasons takes forever to load.)
  - paul9290 16y ago
    Connecting your iphone or ipod touch is snappy? I have two mac Minis an ipod touch and iphone, when I connect either of them to either Mac Mini(one of 2007 and one from 2010) it takes forever for it to sync, which then I can finally transfer digital files onto said device. Now when I do the same thing on windows (transfer digital files), it's plug in device and drag and drop and your done. Overall Im a MAC person now, but far as I know there is no easy way to drag and drop digital files onto any Apple device where it's as easy as Windows.
    - ugh 16y ago
      I honestly don’t know how long it takes to sync my iPod touch. I just plug it in to charge and leave it plugged in.
      - paul9290 16y ago
        Umm that is my point. When you want to quickly drag and drop files onto an iphone or ipod it has to sync first which for me and sounds as you takes awhile! You cant plug in play and immediately drag and drop. I guess everyone is use to waiting and waiting for it to sync then transfer their media files as my initial post is getting downvoted?
generalk 16y ago
I love my Macbook Pro -- best laptop I've ever owned. I even love OS X in that, for the most part, everything works without issue. But articles like this make me wonder why I shouldn't switch back to Ubuntu. TFA mentions the following software that runs just fine on Linux: * Chrome * Dropbox * Google Services * Crashplan * LastPass * Google Calendar * VLC Some software doesn't run under Linux but has perfectly capable replacements: * Adium: Pidgin * TextWrangler/BBEdit: GEdit, Emacs, Vim * Mail.app replacements: GMail's web interface replaced these long ago. * Evernote: Can be used via the limited web interface. Some of them are even commercial replacements for features that most Linux desktops have had forever: * iStat Menus (which I bought) * Witch window switcher * HyperSpaces
- imperialWicket 16y ago
  GEdit is hardly a replacement for BBEdit. UltraEdit just released for Linux though, and should more than accommodate anyone who wants to switch to Linux and keep a solid GUI text editor.
- evlapix 16y ago
  I have challenged myself with the same question. After giving Ubuntu another chance, I realized how frustrating its inconsistencies are. For example: "cmd+,". Maybe I haven't been with Ubuntu long enough to see through these slight details, but they make all the difference for me. Another solid advantage is that when you hit a wall on Ubuntu and start googling around for a solution, you typically need to sort through several pages of "What's your configuration". On OS X, there is no such issue. Disclaimer: I'm probably not a power user by HN's definition.
  - generalk 16y ago
    I very much agree here! Ubuntu's 90% of the way there, but when you're used to things like Cmd+, for preferences, not having it is frustrating. That said, more and more I'm moving to the cloud for doing things that aren't Emacs or a shell, and I'm thinking that Ubuntu and a tiling wm are all I'd really need to be productive. I've tried in the past but it just never seems to gel for me in terms of usability.
JonnieCache 16y ago
Anyone looking for a simple, (open!) osx music player that just has a playlist you can drop folders onto and nothing else, check out Cog. http://cogx.org/ http://cogx.org/ Also, Path Finder, a finder replacement in the vain of Directory Opus on windows. It has tabs, split windows, everything you would expect. It also has command line integration and a built in hex viewer/edtior. The only thing I've ever wanted for is regex-based filtering of listings, but I can cope without that. http://cocoatech.com/ http://cocoatech.com/ I would go mad without this. Finder sucks. EDIT: And how could I forget springy, an archiver that lets me double click on archives and actually lets me browse them in their own windows and selectively extract from them, rather than instantaneously spurting files everywhere like every other OS X archiver seems to do. http://www.springyarchiver.com/ http://www.springyarchiver.com/ It took me over a year just to find an OS X archiver that behaves like ones on other platforms. It seems mac devs are a little obsessed by mimicking the default apple workflow.
- askedrelic 16y ago
  Vox is another great, simple, MP3/FLAC music player http://www.voxapp.uni.cc/ http://www.voxapp.uni.cc/
- randallsquared 16y ago
  > Anyone looking for a simple, (open!) osx music player that just has a playlist you can drop folders onto and nothing else, check out Cog. I'll check this out. I have gigs of MP3s I never listen to on my Mac anymore because iTunes sucks so much.
- draebek 16y ago
  > Anyone looking for a simple, (open!) osx music player that just has a playlist you can drop folders onto and nothing else, check out Cog. Cog is nice but unfortunately it doesn't support ReplayGain. (Ditto Vox.) I actually use VLC as an MP3 player for this reason.
  - JonnieCache 16y ago
    If you require replaygain try Play. http://sbooth.org/Play/ http://sbooth.org/Play/ It's website is bizarrely similar to Cog's one, they must have been a template. The apps are also very similar, but Play has a few extra features and consequently a busier interface. It does support replaygain however. Also for anyone checking out cog, go to the preferences and set the auto-updater to get nightly builds, the stable builds dont really get updated. The nighties are just as stable, but the interface controls are more cleanly laid out.
hexley 16y ago
"Power user" replacements for OS X default apps more like, very questionable list that is...
imperialWicket 16y ago
I prefer KeepassX for password management. It's a little more hands off than its more browser-oriented counterparts. It's also free, open source, and cross-platform.
ams6110 16y ago
I don't find that VLC is a good replacement for Quicktime Player. I often have problems with VLC playing audio streams (frequent rebuffering, often freezing up completely), whereas Quicktime will play the same stream faultlessly. Edit: I do use VLC though, it's great for other things, just doesn't replace Quicktime for me.
ams6110 16y ago
I use: Emacs for editing/coding, mail, chat, task management, and calendar; Terminal for file system manipulation; Safari for browsing, though Chrome is nice too; Preview seems fine for PDFs. Not much else on a daily basis.
- docgnome 16y ago
  Sounds like you don't really need OS X then. Unless you're particularly attached to Safari. I'm roughly the same myself. Only with urxvt and conkeror instead of Terminal and Safari.
  - ams6110 16y ago
    80% of the time I don't. Now that Chrome is here I don't really even feel strongly about Safari. But I just love the MacBook. And the other stock apps and utilities, plus what's available either free or commercially, just rounds out the package for times when I need functionality outside my normal needs.
  - masklinn 16y ago
    You never "really need OSX", unless you're developing for it or for iOS. The point of OSX, to me, is that it's a Unix which generally just works and has an interface worth using. Oh, and it has a thriving and high-quality indie community.
stcredzero 16y ago
For a text editor on OS X, look at SubEthaEdit. It looks and behaves a lot like XCode, probably because it uses the same Cocoa libraries as XCode. It has code folding that works well, even in Python, and you can even have selections processed by by external commands. If you need to open a ridiculously large log file, there's also gedit. On OS X, it looks ugly and awkward, but it gets the job done on 500 megabyte files where even AquaMacs and TextMate fall down.
- astrange 16y ago
  TextMate falls down on all sorts of things - it's remarkably slow. The go-to editor for very large files is BBEdit.
ams6110 16y ago
Some other keyboard shortcuts: In Safari, alt-tab switches focus to the next control; tab normally just switches to the next input element. In Expose (F3), cmd-tab cycles apps; limits the Expose view to that app's windows. Arrows select a window, <return> then brings that window in focus. In Expose, cmd-` cycles apps, limits Expose view to that app. Similar to above but you don't see the App icons overlay on the screen; they are instead highlighted on the Dock and the switching happens immediately. To activate Spaces view, F8 by default but that launches iTunes on my MacBook. I remapped mine to F6 in the System Preferences. Then arrow keys select a space.
speleding 16y ago
Perhaps I'm not enough of a power user since I'm quite happy with most OS X apps, but there are two replacements I can recommend: - Spell catcher to replace the built in spell checking - Divvy for window management
- earl 16y ago
  +1 for divvy: http://www.mizage.com/divvy/ http://www.mizage.com/divvy/ Watch the video, but basically, you can define predetermined window positions and sizes, bind those to keys, and use hot keys to snap windows to the predetermined sizes. Or a size selector available on the fly. This is particularly nice if you travel with your laptop and don't like the resizing behavior for windows that are on an external monitor when you unplug it.
siddhant 16y ago
You must go through this list - http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/82/os-x-applications-you-cant-live-without http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/82/os-x-application... Infact, most of the questions on http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=votes http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=votes are worth checking out. It'll make life a lot easier (at least it made mine). The whole eco system of applications on the Mac makes me think that switching over from an ArchLinux box to a Macbook Pro was one of the best decisions I ever made.
- subelsky 16y ago
  this is an awesome list, thanks for sharing it! I'm poring through it now.
h5n1 16y ago
I'm surprised that the author replaced iTunes with Pandora when Grooveshark is so much more versatile. Plus, it can be made into a damn good Fluid app. Additionally, some of his "replacements" are just extensions to normal processes; Hyperspaces runs within spaces, and Witch runs within Expose. On that note, though, there's a QuickTime add-on called Perian that makes the program much more versatile, and can in many cases re-replace VLC.
- rjvir 16y ago
  Pandora's recommendation engine is far better than Grooveshark's.
  - alsocasey 16y ago
    But Grooveshark is available in countries where Pandora (sadly) isn't.
- alsocasey 16y ago
  Speaking of Fluid - which should rightly have been in the list as a decent and free Mailplane substitute when combined with a few extensions/userscripts - why oh why is it so slow when compared to the same website running in Chrome. I was under the impression they used the same JS engine under the hood...
mcmatterson 16y ago
I maintain a list of the apps I use (and a list of must not use apps) at http://www.longbeard.org/static/macapps.html http://www.longbeard.org/static/macapps.html
vault_ 16y ago
If you think that VLC is a good Quicktime alternative you should try out mplayer. There's an awesome Mac gui for it called MPlayer OSX Extended (http://www.mplayerosx.ch/ http://www.mplayerosx.ch/). It's a lot more streamlined and will play at least everything that VLC does.
pflats 16y ago
Rather than replace Quicktime with VLC, you're much better off, in my opinion, installing the Perian plugin. It runs almost everything: http://www.perian.org http://www.perian.org I suppose I've also technically "replaced" my dock and Spotlight search with Launchbar, which gives you, essentially, an Apple-fied version of a command line. Hitting a shortcut (cmd-space for me) opens the app, and it auto-completes application names and common OS tasks for you. Quicksilver is an FOSS alternative that does much of the same. Launchbar: http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/ http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/ Quicksilver: https://github.com/tiennou/blacktree-alchemy https://github.com/tiennou/blacktree-alchemy Finally, not a replacement, but anyone who runs Boot Camp or anything similar owes it to themselves to install NTFS-3G, to read and write to NTFS partitions: http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ edit: Fixed a bit of formatting. Also, saw a few of these were already mentioned (at least in passing) while I was putting my reply together. Sorry about the repeats.
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  >NTFS-3G Snow leopard has native NTFS write now, you just have to enable it. http://tool-box.info/blog/archives/1193-On-NTFS-readwrite-support-in-Snow-Leopard.html http://tool-box.info/blog/archives/1193-On-NTFS-readwrite-su...
m0shen 16y ago
Some additions: Xee - A fast image viewer The Unarchiver - Extracts everything, with some nice options MPlayer OSX Extended - Another great media player KeePassX - Open source password manager Burn - Alternative image/file burning utility Disk Inventory X - Disk space visualization muCommander - An advanced file manager
ludwigvan 16y ago
Two small additions: * cdto: "Fast mini application that opens a Terminal.app window cd'd to the front most finder window." * fastscripts: "Powerful script management utility." You can assign shortcuts to your scripts. http://code.google.com/p/cdto/ http://code.google.com/p/cdto/ http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/ http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/
damoncali 16y ago
Not really a replacement, but if you're on OSX and are not using Fake (http://fakeapp.com http://fakeapp.com) for your in-browser testing, you're missing out.
xuki 16y ago
No one here uses SizeUp and JumpCut? They're pretty awesome. http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/ http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/
exasecond 16y ago
One really useful program that replaces various things in MacOS X is Keyboard Maestro (http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/ http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/). It's a way of getting your keyboard to control more things on your system - from triggering abbreviations that expand into words or phrases, to starting or controlling other applications. These abbreviations can run shell scripts too. It's considerably better than Automator, I think. I particularly like and use the web triggers (which let you access the KM engine using the built-in web server) and the iPhone app (free) which you can use to control your Mac from other locations. It makes a killer remote control too...
kayoone 16y ago
Every few month i get the feeling of trying out linux again on some machine. Had a MSI Wind U100 netbook lying around and got the latest Ubuntu 10.10 netbook edition because i thought the netbook is pretty old now and stuff should work with the latest ubuntu. It didnt. While ubuntu was running fine i had problems with the wifi waking up after hibernate/sleep which always forced me to reboot to use wifi again. Googling revealed some people having similar issues, stating that it worked fine under 10.04 but now unter 10.10 it doesnt. I thought minor releases were ment to fix bugs, not create new ones. People on the ubuntu forums suggested trying the windows wifi drivers through ndiswra...nope, i wont start fiddling with stuff like that for hours on end again to get basic functionality working. Power management also was worse than on windows... i didnt even try to get bluetooth to work and installed win xp sp3 on it... Sorry Linux, it didnt work out this year, again :/
pak 16y ago
The best "power replacement" for anything on OS X is not an app, it's a piece of hardware: an SSD. If you still have a hard drive, go get an SSD replacement--it makes a world of difference for OS X performance. I couldn't imagine going back. I see some people in this thread talking about how this or that is slow and I can bet that for most of them, a $200 SSD would change everything.
octopus 16y ago
A nice replacement for the Mail program is Thunderbird, if you use this you can move your emails on any modern OS by just copying a folder. VLC for movies and dvd's.
kevingessner 16y ago
Funny to see this today, since I just had my first app accepted to the Mac App store. It's called Twitch, and it's a launcher designed for power users and keyboard junkies: http://twitchapp.com http://twitchapp.com
soolwan 16y ago
ShiftIt is great for positioning windows, a la Compiz Grid. (http://code.google.com/p/shiftit/ http://code.google.com/p/shiftit/)

155 points by subelsky 16y ago

Is a power user now someone who needs all their documents synced using some cloud service? Aside from using Chrome, Quicksilver and Emacs, I find most of the other listed OS X defaults to be perfectly adequate for my needs. I'll handle my own replication and backups, thanks.

jalewis 16y ago
I used to do all my backups locally to a NAS and various USB drives. Dropbox allowed me to sync between multiple computers running different OSes which is not an easy thing to do normally. I've found myself syncing .emacs, .ssh/config and other customizations across systems and it's so much easier. Another bonus for Dropbox is the ability to share folders with other users. It makes sharing docs so easy because everyone sees the same version.
sudont 16y ago
Furthermore, what’s with the recent hate on application-level switching? Just about ever “power user” I see nowadays wants Windows 98-esque window switching, despite the fact that the mac window manager is built around an application > window hierarchy. Personally, it’s one of the most aggravating features I have to deal with on XP, so I can’t understand why anyone would want it on their mac.
- sross 16y ago
  Not answering for everyone, of course, but I find the mac model breaks down when I only want to pull a single window of an app to the foreground. Envisage, if you will, this scenario. I have multiple terminal windows open in the background connected to various services and my current focus is on my fullscreen IDE of choice. Now my IDE has various pieces of information on it and, given that my short term memory isn't what it once was, I would like to always be able refer to it. So I switch to Terminal and ALL the Terminal windows are pulled above the IDE window, often obscuring the piece of information I wanted to reference. It's not that the 98-esque model is necessarily superior, it's rather that it's surprising when windows you haven't requested to see are pulled into the foreground. Now this may be due to me having used `window-centric` switching for many years but after 3 years of owning a mac I still find this behaviour frustrating.
  - weeksie 16y ago
    CMD-` switches between application windows. That might help a bit, I use it constantly; so constantly in fact, that I remapped buffer switching in emacs to that command.
    - pstinnett 16y ago
      Thanks for posting that. Never knew!
    - ot 16y ago
      CMD-` doesn't solve the problem, if you are in an application and you want to bring up a window from another application you still have to use CMD-TAB. But this brings up all the windows from the other application.
      - weeksie 16y ago
        You're totally right, I just skimmed the comment before I posted, my bad.
      - msbarnett 16y ago
        Yeah, the best solution here is definitely exposé. Invoke, select just the window you want via arrow keys or beginning to type the window's title, hit return, and only that window comes forward.
    - euroclydon 16y ago
      I'm a hater of the App -> Windows paradigm. I just brought up two finder windows, minimized one, CMD-TAB'd to Chrome, then back to Finder, and finally no amount of CMD-` would make the minimised Finder visible. Plus, just how many mouse actions does it take to tile two windows? Two in Win7, a whole lot more in OSX.
  - Stwerner 16y ago
    You might want to check out Visor - http://visor.binaryage.com/ http://visor.binaryage.com/ makes your terminal a roll-down fps-like console, and can handle all the tabs as well. I've found it very useful to solve the exact problem you're having.
- ot 16y ago
  I find the "application > window" hierarchy breaks horribly Spaces: if you have two windows of the same application in two different spaces (for example, two terminals or two finders) and you focus one window in one space, you go to the other space where the other window was in background and you find it in foreground. Because of this nuisance I never managed to get used to Spaces. There are at least three applications where different windows are "morally" different applications: Terminal, Finder and web browser. I should be able to focus individual windows without bringing to foreground the whole application.
  - jmilloy 16y ago
    In fact, I'd like to be able "attach" a terminal to another app for switching purposes. It's probably the same with finder and browser, (I'd add text editor). A "one task, one app" type of app should have it's functionally-related windows grouped for switching, but a highly multipurpose app where different windows do not serve different functions should be separate.
    - ot 16y ago
      Exactly, that was my point. Applications and "CMD+TAB window groups" should be separate concepts.
    - NickPollard 16y ago
      This is what I use Multiple Desktops for on Ubuntu - I group applications by task, so that each task has one desktop. Then I just switch between desktops, and very rarely between individual applications (as they don't normally overlap). Trying to work on Windows without good multiple desktop support is horrid now.
- jmilloy 16y ago
  Application level switching makes sense to me when you are working using "one app, one task." Switching from my IDE to chat...? sure bring up my both contacts list and chat window. But a power user is probably using more than one app per task, and is multitasking (or whose task requires many separate subtasks), and of course some of the apps are used in multiple tasks. It would increase productivity if I could easily bring up the windows I'm using for task a, and switch easily to the windows I'm using for task b, even if textmate and a terminal are in use in both tasks. Yeah yeah, we have spaces... the point is that, for me, while purely window-level switching is a poor solution, app level switching is both a poor and often actually anti-productive solution. (I, also, am a longtime windows user now using os x. That's definitely a factor, here)
subelsky 16y ago
I'm curious, how do you handle this? Do you have multiple machines? Do you use something like rsync?
- stuhacking 16y ago
  I use scp to backup the folders I'm interested in. I use git to manage sharing data between machines. (Again, just the stuff I'm interested in.) I don't keep 100% synchronisation between machines. I don't back everything up. I'm happy working at this level of granularity because it allows me to stay selective and not accumulate cruft due to relying on an automated backup of my entire drive. (In my case, backing everything up would result in a lot of useless noise.) I'm not saying it's for everyone, but it works for me.
  - mturmon 16y ago
    You might want to look into rsync as a replacement for scp. Version 2 is built in, but if you follow the directions at: http://www.bombich.com/rsync.html http://www.bombich.com/rsync.html you can build a newer rsync that syncs all metadata.
imperialWicket 16y ago
+1 for Quicksilver (adding key bindings to all of your applications and some of there core functionalities definitely supports the 'power user' tag) - and I agree that most of these are just preferred apps, not necessarily power user-specific. Text edit is the other app that gets replaced, BBEdit or UltraEdit for any efforts that just aren't comfortable in vim. I would hesitate to call adding a GUI text editor a 'power user' update, though. The rest of this reads like an ad for the various services (many of which are good, but not indicative of a 'power user'). How can people live without making use of spaces?
- karanr 16y ago
  Yes, Quicksilver is a great replacement for Spotlight Search. It indexes very fast, and it is very powerful for mundane and time consuming tasks such as moving files from one folder to another, or quickly compressing and email files. All can be achieved at lightning fast speeds with just a few keystrokes. I almost always launch apps with Quicksilver.

tialys 16y ago

Gmail only (for the time being), but Sparrow has become my new mail app of choice. http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/ http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/

jaxonrice 16y ago
In a similar vein, I truly love the way Postbox handles my multiple email accounts. http://www.postbox-inc.com/ http://www.postbox-inc.com/

leon_ 16y ago

The most power user replacement would be to replace the OS X window manager with a custom tiling manager.

spicyj 16y ago
I don't think you can do that; please correct me if I'm wrong.
- docgnome 16y ago
  I _think_ you might be able to run a tilling wm in X but that wouldn't exactly replace the wm. I sorta hate the OS X wm which is a major impetus for me to run debian where I can actually chose what wm to use instead of having to obey the almighty menu bar.
  - wahnfrieden 16y ago
    You can run stuff like XMonad, but it only works with things run inside X11, yeah. So there's pretty much no point to it -- might as well install Debian.

oscardelben 16y ago

I think it comes down to personal preferences. I've tried several times to switch to Chrome, but for me Safari is better. For example I like how I can access bookmarks from hotkeys. Same for textedit and terminal, I can't think of any reason to switch, and I've tried several alternatives.

program 16y ago

A Power User that doesn't replace "Archive Utility.app" with The Unarchiver? http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

subelsky 16y ago
that looks really cool; half the reason I wrote this was to find out what gems I am missing.
emiller829 16y ago
Wow, thanks for this. I've been using a Mac since 2000, and never came across this gem.
albemuth 16y ago
Hmm why? I've never downloaded a zip it couldn't handle. And for creating, tar from the command line.
- callahad 16y ago
  Then you've never downloaded a password-protected Zip file, a RAR file, a 7-Zip file, or an LZMA / XZ file. Nor have you needed to unpack a CAB, RPM, or XAR archive.
  - pak 16y ago
    I've used 7zX for those rare cases, which is ugly but works. ...In case people don't want to replace the default Archive Utility.
PCheese 16y ago
I keep a copy of The Unarchiver around for those odd formats and password-protected archives, but I still leave most things to Archive Utility. I find The Unarchiver is still too buggy for me (things like http://code.google.com/p/theunarchiver/issues/detail?id=215 http://code.google.com/p/theunarchiver/issues/detail?id=215 ).

tkahn6 16y ago

Chrome keep tabs in separate processes (not threads).

subelsky 16y ago
Oh cool, I didn't know that - thanks for clarifying. I'll update the post.
- ajarmoniuk 16y ago
  Now you'll become powerer. Btw, how would you assume that using threads instead of processes leads to less crashing?
  - subelsky 16y ago
    Just lazy thinking when I drafted the post.
    - ajarmoniuk 16y ago
      Good post nonetheless.
sigzero 16y ago
With Safari I can right click and copy a image and paste it into another app...every time I try that with Chrome the paste is broken. Fixed maybe?
- roxstar 16y ago
  I just tried it on linux and it works :/

timtadh 16y ago

I am sorry but this was a pointless article. You can down vote me now.

iqster 16y ago

Just wait for the network connection to go down.

tommypalm 16y ago

Launchbar over Alfred as a replacement for Spotlight. I just prefer the 30 day trial model over limited free usage and then pay for 'power user' features.

woid 16y ago

what about TotalFinder? (warning: I'm the author, but I would still vote for it :-) http://totalfinder.binaryage.com http://totalfinder.binaryage.com

subelsky 16y ago
That looks like a great utility. I'm already planning a follow-up post based on what I've learned here!
retroguy 16y ago
I bought TotalFinder last week, nice app, I usually uninstall these types of replacement apps after about 5 minutes but i'm very happy - keep up the good work!
sigzero 16y ago
That looks really nice. I will try it out when I get back to my Mac.
imperialWicket 16y ago
For anyone who doesn't want to use Terminal for file system navigation, a Finder replacement is a must. I'm constantly amazed at how terrible Finder is at its (relatively simple) job. Windows Explorer set the bar pretty low though. There are a number of good Finder alternatives, each with their own perks. I won't steal your thunder here with a list, cause totalfinder is one of my favorites.
ghrje 16y ago
TotalFinder is awesome; but I want my rounded corners back. :(
jeffclark 16y ago
I downloaded the TotalFinder trial a few months ago and used it for about 20 minutes before throwing a wad of cash at you. It's a really great Finder replacement. Especially if you're rocking a 13" or smaller screen. TotalFinder is the first app I install on a new machine.
16y ago

gaiusparx 16y ago

Just realized I'm not a power user if I use Safari. Damn Apple.

pistoriusp 16y ago
Me too for: Safari, Dashboard Widgets, Spaces, iTunes, Terminal, Preview, iChat and Keychain. Everything is very standard here in my world.
Tycho 16y ago
Safari has some good extensions, like this one (forget its name) that quickly scans a page and tells you what frameworks/servers/technologies were used in its making. Good way to keep track of whats hot in web development.

paul9290 16y ago

iTunes overall is the worst experience on a MAC. For any user who used Windows for a few years and jumps onto a MAC I would bet most find it frustrating! It takes so long to load up and then to transfer music to then listen ... uggh! Thus like the author of this article I use YouTube, Vevo and Pandora to listen to my music collection; either on my desktop or thru my iPhone.

ugh 16y ago
iTunes is pretty snappy for me. (Except for the Store which for whatever reasons takes forever to load.)
- paul9290 16y ago
  Connecting your iphone or ipod touch is snappy? I have two mac Minis an ipod touch and iphone, when I connect either of them to either Mac Mini(one of 2007 and one from 2010) it takes forever for it to sync, which then I can finally transfer digital files onto said device. Now when I do the same thing on windows (transfer digital files), it's plug in device and drag and drop and your done. Overall Im a MAC person now, but far as I know there is no easy way to drag and drop digital files onto any Apple device where it's as easy as Windows.
  - ugh 16y ago
    I honestly don’t know how long it takes to sync my iPod touch. I just plug it in to charge and leave it plugged in.
    - paul9290 16y ago
      Umm that is my point. When you want to quickly drag and drop files onto an iphone or ipod it has to sync first which for me and sounds as you takes awhile! You cant plug in play and immediately drag and drop. I guess everyone is use to waiting and waiting for it to sync then transfer their media files as my initial post is getting downvoted?

generalk 16y ago

I love my Macbook Pro -- best laptop I've ever owned. I even love OS X in that, for the most part, everything works without issue. But articles like this make me wonder why I shouldn't switch back to Ubuntu. TFA mentions the following software that runs just fine on Linux: * Chrome * Dropbox * Google Services * Crashplan * LastPass * Google Calendar * VLC Some software doesn't run under Linux but has perfectly capable replacements: * Adium: Pidgin * TextWrangler/BBEdit: GEdit, Emacs, Vim * Mail.app replacements: GMail's web interface replaced these long ago. * Evernote: Can be used via the limited web interface. Some of them are even commercial replacements for features that most Linux desktops have had forever: * iStat Menus (which I bought) * Witch window switcher * HyperSpaces

imperialWicket 16y ago
GEdit is hardly a replacement for BBEdit. UltraEdit just released for Linux though, and should more than accommodate anyone who wants to switch to Linux and keep a solid GUI text editor.
evlapix 16y ago
I have challenged myself with the same question. After giving Ubuntu another chance, I realized how frustrating its inconsistencies are. For example: "cmd+,". Maybe I haven't been with Ubuntu long enough to see through these slight details, but they make all the difference for me. Another solid advantage is that when you hit a wall on Ubuntu and start googling around for a solution, you typically need to sort through several pages of "What's your configuration". On OS X, there is no such issue. Disclaimer: I'm probably not a power user by HN's definition.
- generalk 16y ago
  I very much agree here! Ubuntu's 90% of the way there, but when you're used to things like Cmd+, for preferences, not having it is frustrating. That said, more and more I'm moving to the cloud for doing things that aren't Emacs or a shell, and I'm thinking that Ubuntu and a tiling wm are all I'd really need to be productive. I've tried in the past but it just never seems to gel for me in terms of usability.

JonnieCache 16y ago

Anyone looking for a simple, (open!) osx music player that just has a playlist you can drop folders onto and nothing else, check out Cog. http://cogx.org/ http://cogx.org/ Also, Path Finder, a finder replacement in the vain of Directory Opus on windows. It has tabs, split windows, everything you would expect. It also has command line integration and a built in hex viewer/edtior. The only thing I've ever wanted for is regex-based filtering of listings, but I can cope without that. http://cocoatech.com/ http://cocoatech.com/ I would go mad without this. Finder sucks. EDIT: And how could I forget springy, an archiver that lets me double click on archives and actually lets me browse them in their own windows and selectively extract from them, rather than instantaneously spurting files everywhere like every other OS X archiver seems to do. http://www.springyarchiver.com/ http://www.springyarchiver.com/ It took me over a year just to find an OS X archiver that behaves like ones on other platforms. It seems mac devs are a little obsessed by mimicking the default apple workflow.

askedrelic 16y ago
Vox is another great, simple, MP3/FLAC music player http://www.voxapp.uni.cc/ http://www.voxapp.uni.cc/
randallsquared 16y ago
> Anyone looking for a simple, (open!) osx music player that just has a playlist you can drop folders onto and nothing else, check out Cog. I'll check this out. I have gigs of MP3s I never listen to on my Mac anymore because iTunes sucks so much.
draebek 16y ago
> Anyone looking for a simple, (open!) osx music player that just has a playlist you can drop folders onto and nothing else, check out Cog. Cog is nice but unfortunately it doesn't support ReplayGain. (Ditto Vox.) I actually use VLC as an MP3 player for this reason.
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  If you require replaygain try Play. http://sbooth.org/Play/ http://sbooth.org/Play/ It's website is bizarrely similar to Cog's one, they must have been a template. The apps are also very similar, but Play has a few extra features and consequently a busier interface. It does support replaygain however. Also for anyone checking out cog, go to the preferences and set the auto-updater to get nightly builds, the stable builds dont really get updated. The nighties are just as stable, but the interface controls are more cleanly laid out.

hexley 16y ago

"Power user" replacements for OS X default apps more like, very questionable list that is...

imperialWicket 16y ago

I prefer KeepassX for password management. It's a little more hands off than its more browser-oriented counterparts. It's also free, open source, and cross-platform.

ams6110 16y ago

I don't find that VLC is a good replacement for Quicktime Player. I often have problems with VLC playing audio streams (frequent rebuffering, often freezing up completely), whereas Quicktime will play the same stream faultlessly. Edit: I do use VLC though, it's great for other things, just doesn't replace Quicktime for me.

ams6110 16y ago

I use: Emacs for editing/coding, mail, chat, task management, and calendar; Terminal for file system manipulation; Safari for browsing, though Chrome is nice too; Preview seems fine for PDFs. Not much else on a daily basis.

docgnome 16y ago
Sounds like you don't really need OS X then. Unless you're particularly attached to Safari. I'm roughly the same myself. Only with urxvt and conkeror instead of Terminal and Safari.
- ams6110 16y ago
  80% of the time I don't. Now that Chrome is here I don't really even feel strongly about Safari. But I just love the MacBook. And the other stock apps and utilities, plus what's available either free or commercially, just rounds out the package for times when I need functionality outside my normal needs.
- masklinn 16y ago
  You never "really need OSX", unless you're developing for it or for iOS. The point of OSX, to me, is that it's a Unix which generally just works and has an interface worth using. Oh, and it has a thriving and high-quality indie community.

stcredzero 16y ago

For a text editor on OS X, look at SubEthaEdit. It looks and behaves a lot like XCode, probably because it uses the same Cocoa libraries as XCode. It has code folding that works well, even in Python, and you can even have selections processed by by external commands. If you need to open a ridiculously large log file, there's also gedit. On OS X, it looks ugly and awkward, but it gets the job done on 500 megabyte files where even AquaMacs and TextMate fall down.

astrange 16y ago
TextMate falls down on all sorts of things - it's remarkably slow. The go-to editor for very large files is BBEdit.

ams6110 16y ago

Some other keyboard shortcuts: In Safari, alt-tab switches focus to the next control; tab normally just switches to the next input element. In Expose (F3), cmd-tab cycles apps; limits the Expose view to that app's windows. Arrows select a window, <return> then brings that window in focus. In Expose, cmd-` cycles apps, limits Expose view to that app. Similar to above but you don't see the App icons overlay on the screen; they are instead highlighted on the Dock and the switching happens immediately. To activate Spaces view, F8 by default but that launches iTunes on my MacBook. I remapped mine to F6 in the System Preferences. Then arrow keys select a space.

speleding 16y ago

Perhaps I'm not enough of a power user since I'm quite happy with most OS X apps, but there are two replacements I can recommend: - Spell catcher to replace the built in spell checking - Divvy for window management

earl 16y ago
+1 for divvy: http://www.mizage.com/divvy/ http://www.mizage.com/divvy/ Watch the video, but basically, you can define predetermined window positions and sizes, bind those to keys, and use hot keys to snap windows to the predetermined sizes. Or a size selector available on the fly. This is particularly nice if you travel with your laptop and don't like the resizing behavior for windows that are on an external monitor when you unplug it.

siddhant 16y ago

You must go through this list - http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/82/os-x-applications-you-cant-live-without http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/82/os-x-application... Infact, most of the questions on http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=votes http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=votes are worth checking out. It'll make life a lot easier (at least it made mine). The whole eco system of applications on the Mac makes me think that switching over from an ArchLinux box to a Macbook Pro was one of the best decisions I ever made.

subelsky 16y ago
this is an awesome list, thanks for sharing it! I'm poring through it now.

h5n1 16y ago

I'm surprised that the author replaced iTunes with Pandora when Grooveshark is so much more versatile. Plus, it can be made into a damn good Fluid app. Additionally, some of his "replacements" are just extensions to normal processes; Hyperspaces runs within spaces, and Witch runs within Expose. On that note, though, there's a QuickTime add-on called Perian that makes the program much more versatile, and can in many cases re-replace VLC.

rjvir 16y ago
Pandora's recommendation engine is far better than Grooveshark's.
- alsocasey 16y ago
  But Grooveshark is available in countries where Pandora (sadly) isn't.
alsocasey 16y ago
Speaking of Fluid - which should rightly have been in the list as a decent and free Mailplane substitute when combined with a few extensions/userscripts - why oh why is it so slow when compared to the same website running in Chrome. I was under the impression they used the same JS engine under the hood...

mcmatterson 16y ago

I maintain a list of the apps I use (and a list of must not use apps) at http://www.longbeard.org/static/macapps.html http://www.longbeard.org/static/macapps.html

vault_ 16y ago

If you think that VLC is a good Quicktime alternative you should try out mplayer. There's an awesome Mac gui for it called MPlayer OSX Extended (http://www.mplayerosx.ch/ http://www.mplayerosx.ch/). It's a lot more streamlined and will play at least everything that VLC does.

pflats 16y ago

Rather than replace Quicktime with VLC, you're much better off, in my opinion, installing the Perian plugin. It runs almost everything: http://www.perian.org http://www.perian.org I suppose I've also technically "replaced" my dock and Spotlight search with Launchbar, which gives you, essentially, an Apple-fied version of a command line. Hitting a shortcut (cmd-space for me) opens the app, and it auto-completes application names and common OS tasks for you. Quicksilver is an FOSS alternative that does much of the same. Launchbar: http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/ http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/ Quicksilver: https://github.com/tiennou/blacktree-alchemy https://github.com/tiennou/blacktree-alchemy Finally, not a replacement, but anyone who runs Boot Camp or anything similar owes it to themselves to install NTFS-3G, to read and write to NTFS partitions: http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ edit: Fixed a bit of formatting. Also, saw a few of these were already mentioned (at least in passing) while I was putting my reply together. Sorry about the repeats.

JonnieCache 16y ago
>NTFS-3G Snow leopard has native NTFS write now, you just have to enable it. http://tool-box.info/blog/archives/1193-On-NTFS-readwrite-support-in-Snow-Leopard.html http://tool-box.info/blog/archives/1193-On-NTFS-readwrite-su...

m0shen 16y ago

Some additions: Xee - A fast image viewer The Unarchiver - Extracts everything, with some nice options MPlayer OSX Extended - Another great media player KeePassX - Open source password manager Burn - Alternative image/file burning utility Disk Inventory X - Disk space visualization muCommander - An advanced file manager

ludwigvan 16y ago

Two small additions: * cdto: "Fast mini application that opens a Terminal.app window cd'd to the front most finder window." * fastscripts: "Powerful script management utility." You can assign shortcuts to your scripts. http://code.google.com/p/cdto/ http://code.google.com/p/cdto/ http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/ http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/

damoncali 16y ago

Not really a replacement, but if you're on OSX and are not using Fake (http://fakeapp.com http://fakeapp.com) for your in-browser testing, you're missing out.

xuki 16y ago

No one here uses SizeUp and JumpCut? They're pretty awesome. http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/ http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

exasecond 16y ago

One really useful program that replaces various things in MacOS X is Keyboard Maestro (http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/ http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/). It's a way of getting your keyboard to control more things on your system - from triggering abbreviations that expand into words or phrases, to starting or controlling other applications. These abbreviations can run shell scripts too. It's considerably better than Automator, I think. I particularly like and use the web triggers (which let you access the KM engine using the built-in web server) and the iPhone app (free) which you can use to control your Mac from other locations. It makes a killer remote control too...

kayoone 16y ago

Every few month i get the feeling of trying out linux again on some machine. Had a MSI Wind U100 netbook lying around and got the latest Ubuntu 10.10 netbook edition because i thought the netbook is pretty old now and stuff should work with the latest ubuntu. It didnt. While ubuntu was running fine i had problems with the wifi waking up after hibernate/sleep which always forced me to reboot to use wifi again. Googling revealed some people having similar issues, stating that it worked fine under 10.04 but now unter 10.10 it doesnt. I thought minor releases were ment to fix bugs, not create new ones. People on the ubuntu forums suggested trying the windows wifi drivers through ndiswra...nope, i wont start fiddling with stuff like that for hours on end again to get basic functionality working. Power management also was worse than on windows... i didnt even try to get bluetooth to work and installed win xp sp3 on it... Sorry Linux, it didnt work out this year, again :/

pak 16y ago

The best "power replacement" for anything on OS X is not an app, it's a piece of hardware: an SSD. If you still have a hard drive, go get an SSD replacement--it makes a world of difference for OS X performance. I couldn't imagine going back. I see some people in this thread talking about how this or that is slow and I can bet that for most of them, a $200 SSD would change everything.

octopus 16y ago

A nice replacement for the Mail program is Thunderbird, if you use this you can move your emails on any modern OS by just copying a folder. VLC for movies and dvd's.

kevingessner 16y ago

Funny to see this today, since I just had my first app accepted to the Mac App store. It's called Twitch, and it's a launcher designed for power users and keyboard junkies: http://twitchapp.com http://twitchapp.com

soolwan 16y ago

ShiftIt is great for positioning windows, a la Compiz Grid. (http://code.google.com/p/shiftit/ http://code.google.com/p/shiftit/)