advice for a switcher?

[rmd]

so, i'm about to be a switch for the first time.[1]

which is to say, i've got a macbook on order that should be arriving in a week or so, depending on vagaries of fedex ground and such.

i realized that nearly all of the things i do with my laptop are platform-independent (mostly web and ssh, really, plus watching media and such), so it was a reasonable time to look at getting a macbook for my new laptop.

i've heard good things about quicksilver. what else should i keep an eye out for free/share/cheapware?

[1] no, not like that, you perverts

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

things i personally cannot live without: one of the several improved rsync's (though your version of osx may have a good one; i've used psync and rsyncx), and "anti-rsi".

have fun with your new toy!

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

I use Fire as an IM client and Solitaire Till Dawn as a time-waster. Firefox with many extensions (adblock, cookiesafe, long titles, tab X). Some dashboard widgets, too.

[solarbird]

I was using Fire but have switched to Adium ( http://www.adiumx.com/ ) and so far prefer it.

There is also a tinyfugue port.

If you don't fear and loathe GIMP, it's available. Personally, I ph33r and loathe it. I also have OpenOffice installed for handling the occasional XLS I have to deal with.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Last time I tried Adium, it didn't work at all well for me. That was some while ago, so they've probably updated and I should give it another look-see.

[freudian-slip.livejournal.com]

i was so close to making a comment until i saw your note.

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

Adium (http://www.adiumx.com/) is a great all-in-one IM client.

XJournal (http://connectedflow.com/xjournal/) is the client I use for posting to LJ. For "real" blogging (Blogger, MoveableType, Typepad, etc.), I use and cheerfully pay for ecto (http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/).

I don't know how I'd live without Sidenote (http://www.chatelp.org/?p=9), one of the most useful quick-notes-to-yourself tools I've ever seen.

I don't use Netflix enough to make it worth my while, but if I watched more movies, I'd probably spend more time updating my queue with Netflix Freak (http://www.thelittleappfactory.com/application.php?app=Netflix%20Freak).

Good luck. I switched over to a PowerBook last year and have been damn happy about it.

[tcb.livejournal.com]

I third Adium, but I use iJournal..

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

I used to use iJournal, but have found xJournal to be a tad better. I think it dealt better with tags, perhaps. Dunno.

[gilana]

Ditto on Adium and XJournal.

I use NetNewsWire Lite as an RSS reader.

Synergy lets you control iTunes from the menubar or with keyboard commands.

[firni.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna demand a Mac Pro for Xmas.

Why?

Because P said "that's too much computer for you to just play WoW and surf the web." FUCK YOU, THAT'S MY NAME

Switcher P.S.

[firni.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I-0badO8rc

[tcb.livejournal.com]

my must haves;

quicksilver
virtue desktops
sshkeychain
weatherpop
synergy
firefox
cocktail

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Yeah, weatherpop is nice. I hear Quicksilver is good, and I know Cocktail is good, too. I'm waiting on a virtual desktops package until I see what 10.5 does with Spaces.

I do like Parallels Desktop, though, it seems to work out pretty darned good.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

• MacENC and/or GPSNavX (chart viewing and plotting programs; download free raster charts from NOAA; both have free demo versions)
  
• KisMAC (802.11 scanner; would actually like a better one but so far no find)
  
• X11 (needs to be dug out from install media, no installed by default; silly!)
  
• vlc (video player for damn near anything on the planet)
  
• DarwinPorts (all the unix you want!)
  
• MultiModeOSX (demodulate almost anything!)
  

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

KisMAC is indeed good. I also use the AirPortController Dashboard widget for the same purpose. And VLC is indeed a must. Oh, so is the Flip4Mac Windows Media Player QuickTime components. I *think* that there's a Universal binary version of them now.

And, yeah, rmd should have MultiModeOSX. It's not important for my use, but, yeah.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i'm trying out istumbler and am liking it as an 802.11 scanner

[(Anonymous)]

platform-agnostic, really, except for the part about tearing hair out installing it on other platforms:

Google Earth. It's taken way too many hours of my precious life away, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Right, if you're using a Palm OS, or Windows mobile, you should get the appropriate Mark|Space MissingSync. It's good for integrating with iCal and AddressBook, as opposed to, for instance, Palm Desktop. (For which I seriously doubt that there's a Universal version.)

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

VideoLan (to play foreign DVDs). SnapNDrag for easy screen snaps. MorseMania for morse code practice.
Carbon Copy Cloner. Good packup utility. Delicious Library. Google Earth, Google Sketch. Graphviz.
Macstumbler. Zterm.