Software Setup

I should be getting my new Powerbook sometime this week so I’ll have a bunch of things to re-install and re-tweak to fit my anal retentive usage. Here’s a rundown for the people who might be switching soon and for me to review what I have to do. Listed roughly in the order of time spent using them.

First, Quicksilver is an absolute essential. If you have a Mac you need to be using this. A quick and simple way to access anything on your system, I use it mostly for starting up apps but it can really do a lot more.

For browsing I still use Safari but I’ve added Saft, and run it in “Aqua” mode. I also use Firefox with the developer extensions and Hicks tabs. There are still a few things I’m not quite used to in Firefox so I’m just lazy and I stick with Safari.

For all text editing, css, xhtml, todos, note taking, etc. I use the excellent Textmate. The icon is horrible though so I’ve installed Ethan Dunham’s alternate set. I’ve also used SubEthaEdit a couple of times for collaborative note taking.

For email I stick with OSX standard Mail although for some reason the spam filter has stopped working so I’m really looking forward to the fresh install. I’ve added Mail.appetizer which displays a transparent popup/fade out of incoming mail.

I check my list of RSS feeds daily and NetNewsWire has been my choice from the beginning. To this I’ve also added some Hicksism by installing his icon set for NNW.

[Update] I forgot, I also change the icon to this version by Wolfgang.

For messaging, I love iChat but I’ve got some poor poor friends and clients stuck with MSN so I use Proteus which works with both networks and has a pretty cool interface.

Transmit for FTP, iWork (now called iBiz) for time tracking and billing.

Poisoned and Tomato torrent for huh.. downloading legal stuff. iTunes for music along with Synergy which provides a cute little button set right on the toolbar and transparent popups/fade outs to display the current song.

Photoshop for visuals, Free ruler and xscope for some detail work. iPhoto for photo management.

Finally, on the toolbar, aside from the previously mentioned Synergy I also use SlimBatteryMonitor which takes up less room than the original and I’ve made my own icon to replace the US flag associated with the english keyboard (I display it because I often switch to the french canadian one and like to know which I’m on, the flag was getting on my nerves…).

That’s about it, there are a good twenty other things installed but I don’t use them much and will re-install if the need arises.