It’s hard for me to believe that it’s only been about a month since I switched to the Macbook Pro. It’s following me pretty much everywhere, and surprisingly has replaced my PDA just as much as my desktop PC. I still use a Thinkpad for work of course, but for anything remotely personal, it’s the mac for me..

Mark asked me for a list of software I’ve adopted now that I’ve made the switch, and I thought I’d share what’s on that list so far. If you’ve been using a Mac for any amount of time, this is probably all old news, but it might save some time for a new switcher like me…

• Adium – great IM client, works with all the major services (even Lotus notes!) very cool.
• Skype – Works just like on the PC, but the mac’s built-in camera makes it more fun
• Audacity – Works great, and has more effects processing than on the PC due to all the Apple-supplied effects.
• Transmission – Best bit-torrent client I’ve ever used. Click and go – it rocks.
• Cyberduck – FTP Client – performs as an FTP client should.
• iTunes – Obviously
• Firefox- Safari’s cute, but FF is still my favourite
• Chicken of the VNC – Great VNC client, very useful
• Fugu – SFTP front end.
• NeoOffice – A well done port of the OpenOffice suite.
• Quicksilver – Was beaten into me at PodCamp, very useful tool I’m still getting used to..
• Flickrbooth – Instant uploads to flickr of PhotoBooth pictures – fun!
• Smultron – I know, I know.. I’m supposed to use BBEdit or something.. but this is a great editor.
• VLC – Video player. Plays everything. Get it. Now.

Widgets:

• Widgetterm – Fully functional unix shell window on the dashboard. For those moments when you need a command-line interface

I’m sure this list will evolve over time, but as someone who attempted the switch in 1998, let me tell you I never got to 15 that time. It’s great to see all this wonderful software now available.

Posted by Bob on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 4:07 pm.