I love seeing what makes people tick. If you are unfortunate enough to have me as a guest, you may catch me glancing at your Mac’s dock or paying very close attention to that toolbox you leave open in the middle of your living room.
Maybe I feel a little guilty for being so nosy, so here’s my offering of penance to the world: a peep inside my Mac’s software armada. Sorry I didn’t have time to provide links to all of these, but maybe you’ll find a new tool that’s useful!
I’ve put an asterisk beside the ones I especially love. I’d be happy to send you an asterisk too if you need some love.
Adobe Connect
– Connects you to Adobe’s online presentation/course software. It’s very powerful but you’ll pay for the power.
Adium*
– This Mac chat client connects to almost any chat protocol, including Twitter and Facebook, so I always have it running.
Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro
– Essential for editing and compressing PDFs for both web and print.
Adobe After Effects
– Pretty awesome software when you want better animation compositing than Flash can muster. An industry standard for television motion graphics.
Adobe Bridge
– Has some nice batch processing and browsing functions. I’d likely use it more if I did more print projects.
Adobe Digital Editions
– For testing e-books that I produce.
Adobe Dreamweaver
– Since moving almost exclusively to CMS-based websites I don’t use this much anymore, but it’s handy when doing the CSS layout on new sites or mass-editing HTML.
Adobe Edge Preview
– I tried this out and hate it so far. It makes me feel like I’m using Flash from 1998 again. For anything highly interactive I much prefer using Haxe and/or JQuery. For any sort of long animation, I’d sooner user Flash or After Effects and export to video for iOS devices.
Adobe Fireworks
– I never use this but I keep it around just in case I need an animated GIF someday. I find it interesting that it uses PNG as its native file format.
Adobe Flash*
– Flash is a considerable source of bread and butter for me—I’ve been using it since it was FutureSplash. There are many cases nowadays where using Haxe to build both a SWF and Canvas-based application is better than using just the Flash application, but I still use this app lots.
Adobe Illustrator*
– One of my favorite tools; a must have for logo design. Great for a quick edit to a PDF. It will remain an important tool as SVG gains support.
Adobe InDesign*
– Awesome since version 1. I use it for proposals, e-books and whatever print design jobs come along.
Adobe Media Encoder
– Essential for making transparent FLV movies for Flash. I like its user-friendliness, but I prefer using HandBrake for encoding H.264 movies.
Adobe Media Player
– Can someone tell me the point of this application?
Adobe Photoshop
– Still irreplaceable, although it’s getting very bloated. I won’t be surprised if they start losing market share to leaner programs soon.
ArtRage Studio Pro
– Lately I have grown fond of natural, handmade graphic styles. This paint program is awesome and fun when coupled with a pressure-sensitive tablet, and is much more economical than Corel Painter.
Audacity*
– A must-have open source audio editor. Wonderful for digitising records and cassettes or doing miscellaneous recording, editing, and audio cleanup.
Blender*
– An open source 3D modeling and animating software. Not the most user-friendly, but when your 3D needs are few and far between it’s very handy. It is compatible with a lot of file formats and 3D engines for Flash and JavaScript.
Boks
– Useful tool for doing a basic layout for the Blueprint CSS framework, which I commonly use when building Joomla templates.
Browsers
– The app tabs and many free plugins make Firefox my choice for everyday browsing. I find Safari to be more useful for development and layout work. I will bust out Internet Explorer, Chrome and Opera when it’s time for testing.
Burn
– Great free CD burning tool.
Calibre*
– The ultimate free e-book conversion and preview tool.
Celtx
– Open source screenplay authoring tool for filmmakers. I keep it on hand in the off chance I will use it someday, because it looks so cool.
ClamXav
– I keep this free virus scanner on hand just in case I download something bad.
Cyberduck*
– Indispensable FTP program. You will use it for free until you feel guilty enough to pay the very reasonable and well deserved license fee.
DiffMerge
– Compare the contents of both folders and files. Powerful!
DNSCrypt-Menubar
– Provides additional web browsing security in combination with OpenDNS.
Dropbox
– Easy file sharing and backup, and you’re not tied to one of the massive companies offering similar services.
Dryad
– A 3D tree generator for those times of low-foliage.
FDT*
– Code editor and development tool for Actionscript and Haxe. Well worth the learning curve if you are going to get serious about coding in those languages. The Haxe support isn’t great but FDT is still my tool of choice since it’s free and supports my two favourite languages.
ffmpegX
– Every once in a while I need to convert a video file into some odd file format, so ffmpegX helps me out with its clunky interface.
Finder Window Manager
– Nice shareware tool for saving windows in Finder.
Flip4Mac
– This seems to be the only game in town when you need to encode Windows Media on a Mac. Kind of expensive for what it does, especially for the Pro versions.
FontForge
– Someday I will make my own font and this program will be there for me. I’ve also used it to convert fonts to different formats before FontSquirrel came along.
FreeMind
– This is useful for project planning and workflow mapping. Free and fun to use.
GarageBand*
– I haven’t graduated to Logic just yet, so I use GarageBand for my amateur music compositions.
GnuCash
– I used this open source application for my invoicing and accounting before switching to the FreshBooks and Kashoo online services. I would recommend GnuCash for some people still, but I really prefer my new solution.
GoToMeeting
– I was forced to install this. We should be using Skype instead, people!
Growl
– Integrates with a lot of other programs (Mail, Cyberduck, Skype) to provide heads-up notification of different events on your computer. Very handy.
HandBrake*
– Oh HandBrake, where would I be without you? This has a high learning curve but creates the best H.264 videos and works SO fast. Incidentally, I recommend delivering web video in H.264 format and using a combination of Flash and HTML5 for playback. Encoding multiple versions of the same video just seems so wrong to me.
HistoryHound
– I found this when I needed to find a site I had visited a long time ago. It digs though the histories of all your browsers to find what you need.
iBooks Author
– I keep this on hand (just in case) but I recommend using other e-book formats and software, because Apple really restricts how you use the products of this software.
iCal
– I use it, it works.
iShowU
– Nice tool for making screencasts. Lots of options, reasonably priced.
iWork (Keynote, Pages, Numbers)
– I use these when I don’t care about having compatible file formats, or when I need to open an MS Office file quickly without editing it. I use Keynote on occasion for presentations.
jEdit
– A free cross-platform text and code editor. I often recommend this to clients who need a text editor with syntax highlighting on Windows.
Kindle
– I need this to test e-books.
Linotype FontExplorer X
– I love having free font management.
MacPorts
– Makes it easier to install certain things on your Mac. Runs from command line.
MagiCal
– I used to like having a little calendar in my menu bar, but I switched to using my Dashboard calendar widget so I don’t use this anymore.
Mail
– There was a time when I really wanted a better email program, but now it has the features I need. Too bad it sometimes conks out when a Mac OS install fails.
MakeHuman
– Remember Poser? This is the open source equivalent to that. Make and pose a human body.
MAMP PRO*
– This is essential for web development, in my opinion. Run it, and you have a super-fast PHP/MySQL server for testing before anything goes on the web. The Pro version is worth the cost if you have lots of sites and can afford it.
Microsoft Silverlight
– I’m glad this thing is finally on its way out.
Miro Video Converter
– Very user-friendly and feature-poor. Has some useful presets, and I use it for the few times I need to encode OGG Theora and WebM video.
MonoDevelop
– I may decide to use this free program for Haxe development if it provides much advantage over FDT. I haven’t tested it thoroughly yet.
Monster Debugger
– I use this when developing Flash, to locate and highlight display objects and view error logging. Very useful.
Mozy
– I use this to backup my files to the cloud. Set and forget, mostly.
MPEG Streamclip*
– Awesome, free video converter. A must-have for me.
MPlayer OSX Extended
– This is also useful for video conversion and playback of odd file formats.
MuseScore
– Edit musical scores for free. I haven’t yet decided if GarageBand’s similar functions are better.
NeoOffice*
– I get by without having to buy Microsoft Office thanks to this software.
NetNewsWire
– My RSS reader of choice, because it syncs with Google Reader.
OnyX
– Very useful free system maintenance tool.
Perian
– A QuickTime add-on that enables it to open may file formats.
Plaxo
– I used this for years to keep my contacts and calendars synced between computers. Now they are saying that I should upgrade to the pro version to continue using it on my Mac. Therefore, if my G5 could run OS X Lion I would be using iCloud instead.
QTAmateur
– I use this for batch converting videos sometimes or exporting image sequences from movies.
QuickTime Player 7
– When Apple released Snow Leopard, they stripped QuickTime Player of its most useful export functionality. Thankfully they still offer version 7 as a download from their site.
Quicksilver
– I stubbornly used this for quite a while, thinking it would speed up my workflow. I later realised that I was only using it for a launcher, and Apple’s Spotlight already did that just as handily.
Renamer4Mac
– Free program that provides batch renaming of files with many options. I love it.
Screeny
– A simple screen recording software.
SecureSWF
– Powerful SWF file obfuscator which can be automated using Ant, so it integrates well with FDT or Eclipse. It’s expensive, so hold off buying it till you really need it.
SiteSucker
– Download an entire website for offline viewing. Very useful for providing quotations on site redesigns if you don’t have FTP access.
Soundflower*
– This audio extension lets you capture anything that is being played through your speakers. Remember to respect copyright! 🙂
SourceTree
– A free GIT, Mercurial, and SVN client. I haven’t used it much yet, but I likely will.
Spark*
– Define custom keyboard macros for just about anything. I use it to control iTunes and to run Applescripts.
Stickies
– For years I used this as a personal database of sorts till I discovered SpringPad.
svnX
– This is currently my free SVN client of choice, but I may switch to SourceTree.
SyncTwoFolders
– Just like the name! Very handy.
TextWrangler*
– I usually have this running for editing HTML, CSS, XML and Javascript. It’s much faster than Dreamweaver. I love its syntax highlighting, file comparison feature and its ability to use GREP in search-and-replace.
The Unarchiver
– This helps when Mac OS has difficulty expanding a compressed file.
Thunderbird
– This email program saves me whenever Mail is having trouble. It’s also useful for testing specially formatted emails.
Transmission
– A free torrent downloader. For the record, I use it legally.
Tunnelblick
– I use this when I need to connect to a VPN network.
twhirl
– An okay Twitter client, but I prefer Adium for general use.
uApp*
– If you want to uninstall a program, drag it onto this utility. It will find its preference files and delete those also.
Unity-3.5
– A 3-D game IDE which exports to Flash.
Pixel Bender Toolkit 2
– Used to create special bitmap effects for Flash.
Vienna
– I used this RSS reader for a long time till I wanted something else that synced with Google Reader.
VirtualBox*
– Awesome, free virtual machine from Sun. I use it to run Windows so I can test websites in Internet Explorer.
VLC
– When other programs can’t play the video, VLC usually can.
Wallaby Technology Preview
– Adobe’s tool for converting Flash animations to SVG animations.
Windows Live Mesh
– Useful for sharing files with Windows users.
Zoe
– Nice tool from GSkinner.com that converts Flash animations into spritesheets for HTML5. I think Flash CS6 likely has a better workflow for sprite sheets now. I haven’t upgraded just yet.
And now for the games. I tend toward inexpensive/free games that you can learn quickly and play in small doses.
Battle Tanks
I like tank games. Haven’t played this much yet.
Boxer
This works with the DosBox emulator to let you run old MS-DOS games on Mac. Very slick!
BZFlag
Open source 3D tank game with strange weapons and abilities. Multiplayer can get pretty insane if there’s too many playing.
EDGE
Navigate a little cube around 3D mazes. A good way to kill ten minutes.
Klondike Forever
Since Mac’s don’t come with Solitaire.
Memory
I found this so I could play it with my kids.
Quinn
A Tetris clone.
Reversi
Another good one to play with kids.
World of Goo*
There are good reasons to pay money for software, and this is it. Addictive puzzle game.
Domination
A RISK clone written in Java.
Osmos
A unique physics game where you are a microscopic organism trying to absorb other ones.
Pac the Man X
In case I don’t want to fire up an emulator.
Scorched3D*
Very fun open source 3D tank game. Take turns using insane weapons to blow each other to smithereens.
Stella
An Atari 2600 emulator.
VICE*
– I break out this Commodore 64 emulator when I want to revisit my childhood and play my favourite retro games.
That’s it! Please comment if you have some better alternatives!
