Must have mac apps?

Just started making the transition from Windows to a Mac Mini, a toe in the water!
Anyone have suggestions for some basic must have software, preferably, free, cheap or 30 day trial?
Particularly FTP, PHP Editing/development, MySQL & File Backup etc.
So far I have :
VMWare Fusion : Working with two XP Virtual Machines : Looks impressive will buy
Firefox : Working with all the developer add ons, can’t do without it! : Free
TextMate :Working : had a quick try, not sure about it
MAMP : Working : Free, but is MAMP Pro worth buying?
Parallels : Downloaded : not installed yet, is it better than VMWare Fusion?
Coda : Downloaded : not installed yet
Transmit : Downloaded : not installed yet
Cyberduck : Downloaded : not installed yet
AppZapper : Downloaded : not installed yet
Please share your thoughts and wisdom with a mac noob

You got the most important, the mac

TextMate vs. Coda: coda is pretty but only does half of what TextMate does, I bought Coda recently and regret not having bought Textmate, now I have both. If you want just one get TM (or the BBEdit which is very nice as well, but more expensive).

MAMP Pro just makes it easy to handle multiple servers, you can do it with MAMP by manually editing some stuff.

Quote from: bunk58 at Dec 05, 2008, 01:04 PM

TextMate :Working : had a quick try, not sure about it

I like TextWrangler personally, but that’s a toss-up.

Parallels : Downloaded : not installed yet, is it better than VMWare Fusion?

No.

Transmit : Downloaded : not installed yet

This is an excellent Mac app.



By the way, the best mac app out there:

Quicksilver - Program launcher / file finder. Will revolutionize your productivity. I’m not kidding. This is the best freeware app out there.

I also like:

• Skitch - Great screenshot app that lets you upload and share SS’s. Awesome for collaboration.
• Senuti - Great for getting stuff off your iPod.
• VLC  - Best media player for the mac.
• Handbrake - Best app out there to get your DVDs on your computer. (And then your ipod)
• Adium - Best IM app out for the mac.
• 1Password - Never have to remember passwords again. Got this as a gift, use it religiously now.

QuickSilver is a must have.

Also smultron is a great small text editor for system files like hosts (it asks for authentication)

Preview to a future blog post ... good topic!

[*] Quicksilver ... used to be a huge fan until memory leaks killed my machine now I use
[*] Launchbar (http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/beta.html) ... the beta looks really cool

General stuff I couldn’t really live without (including LB, above):
[*] $35 1Password (http://1password.com/) - manage/create secure passwords...must have
[*] $69 Textmate (http://macromates.com) - Text Editor ... beyond essential for geeks
[*] $79 iWork – Mac office suite that’s actually pretty sweet
[*] Adobe Creative Suite, Omni Graffle (both relatively expensive)
[*] Fluid App (http://fluidapp.com/) ... build a site specific browser for important/frequented web apps like Basecamp, Google Analytics, etc. you have to experience it and then it clicks
[*] Skitch (http://skitch.com) - screengrab w/ rudimentary annotations ... essential for UI mockups and feedback

FTP programs ... I live in Forklift lately
[*] $30 Forklift (http://www.binarynights.com/): seems to be more stable, but no synch tools (coming and a major focus of next release) the new 1.6 beta is really nice
[*] $30 Transmit (http://www.panic.com/transmit/index.html): typically good all-around but seems to be crash prone for me for no reason
[*] $25 Netfinder (http://www.ortabe.com/products/): $10 crossgrade available ... and supports Automator actions, too
[*] free! CyberDuck (http://cyberduck.ch/): free/open source but somewhat interesting UI

Interesting utilities:
[*] $29 Expandrive (http://www.magnetk.com/expandrive)- Mount SFTP volumes in the finder like a remote disk
[*] $15 Cocktail (http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php) - Mac hidden prefs and maintenance helper

Other really helpful stuff:
[*] AdiumX (http://adiumx.com) - multiprotocol chat client
[*] Colloquy (http://colloquy.info/) - IRC Client
[*] Perian (http://perian.org/) - QT components for almost every format available
[*] Flip4Mac (http://tinyurl.com/hr9on) - Windows Media Components for Quicktime
[*] TarPit (http://homepage.mac.com/entropy4/software/) - Makes tar files via drag-and-dropping files and folders (make sure to exclude resource forks in the prefs)
[*] YemuZip (http://yellowmug.com/yemuzip/) - Zip creator cross-platform ($6)
[*] VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/) - free/OS virtualization
[*] Versions.app ~$50 (http://versionsapp.com/) - Subversion client that works
[*] Subversion (http://homepage.mac.com/martinott/) - Command-line packages
[*] SSH Agent (http://www.phil.uu.nl/~xges/ssh/) - SSH automation and management
[*] XML-RPC Client (http://www.ditchnet.org/xmlrpc/) - dev/testing tool
[*] SOAP Client (http://www.ditchnet.org/soapclient/) - dev/testing tool
[*] Quicklook plugins (http://www.quicklookplugins.com/): get the ones for eps files, compresssed files (.zip, .tar, etc.) and adobe files
[*] Jumpcut (http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/) - Multiple clipboard support (no images though ... text only)
[*] PTHPasteboard (http://pth.com/products/pthpasteboard/) - another one that does support images (multi-clipboard)
[*] Paparrazi (http://www.derailer.org/paparazzi/) - Full webpage screenshots
[*] Growl (should install with Adium ... http://growl.info/)

Thanks Shane, Shaun, Chuck & Ryan.
Already started going through the recommendations.
Skitch & Quicksilver are now installed, look really useful.
I’ll have to go through the rest and see what to put on my Christmas list
Does anyone use a PHP IDE?
I’ve tried sevral on Windows but found them overwhelming e.g. Eclipse etc. or couldn’t get the PHP debug to work correctly NetBeans.

Not much to add... pretty comprehensive list !

I didn’t know Launchbar, I use Overflow

Kudos Ryan for the Fluid tip : it’s really something I missed !!!
The more I see SSBs (Site Specific Browsers), the more I enjoy them...  Could that be used for modx ?

Other than that I recently discovered MailPlane, a GMail client I am testing at the moment...

I use Adium, AppZapper, Coda, Serverskine (Holds info on clients info like Domain Name, Hosting Account info, passwords, DB Info, etc... awesome tool), VMWare Fusion, Delocalizer (removes all language files you don’t want, I saved over 3 GB’s just by doing this!), and of course all the major browsers.

Cool post!

+1 QuickSilver ...probably too dependent on this. Check out this video of the author discussing QS on the Google TechTalk - Quicksilver: Universal Access and Action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4LkTstvUL4

+1 AdiumX / Growl

+1 Flip4Mac (Pro)

+1 Versions (Thx to Ryan!)

Plex - XBMC Port to the Mac, w/ Apple Remote support...watch out Front Row

Linotype FontExplorer X - Awesome open source font management software

VMWare Fusion - Virtualization redefined! I’m officially hybrid

+ More!!

Ryan, thx for ForkLift mention, this is exactly what I’ve been waiting for! I love that you can completely customize the hotkey shortcuts, amongst other things (e.g. FXP, Tabs, etc) Great app!

Quote from: bunk58 at Dec 05, 2008, 06:03 PM

I’ve tried sevral on Windows but found them overwhelming e.g. Eclipse etc. or couldn’t get the PHP debug to work correctly NetBeans.

Eclipse runs smooth as silk on my Mac. I use PHPEclipse, Subclipse for SVN, and Spket for JS.