Spicy Distribution announced the 2008 edition of ‘Give Good Food to Your Mac.’ In this special offer, the more products you buy, the greater the discount gets. Remember when I talked about it last year? It starts at 20% when you choose 3 apps and increases to 50% with 5 apps or more. You have only until the 30th of November 2008 to get the best of the offer.

What’s available this year? Here’s what’s on the menu:

- AlienConverter from AlienCrypt
- Amigos Number Puzzles from Amigos Software
- Amigos Spanish from Amigos Software
- BannerZest from Aquafadas
- BannerZest Pro from Aquafadas
- Bee Docs’ Timeline 3D édition 2.2 from BeeDocs
- BeFit – Get Fit, Stay Fit, BeFit ! from Jon Brown Designs
- Blue Crab from Limit Point Software
- Cheetah 3D from MW 3D-Solutions
- Comic Boom from Toon Boom Animation Inc.
- DejalNarrator 2.0.3 from Dejal
- DEVONagent from DEVONtechnologies, LLC
- DEVONthink Personal from DEVONtechnologies, LLC
- DiscLabel from SmileOnMyMac
- djay 2.1.3 from algoriddim GmbH
- Dossier from Vortimac
- Dragoman from Dare to be Creative Ltd.
- FastCut 3.0.6 from TimesForFun
- Flip Boom Classic from Toon Boom Animations Inc.
- Fluffy’s Log 2.0 from Shallot Patch
- French Verb Game from Amigos Software
- FunBooth 0.9.3 from SourceBits
- Geoaze Pro from SilvergLint Creative-Software
- Geoaze Standard from SilvergLint Creative-Software
- GhostReader English Version from ConvenienceWare
- GhostReader French Version from ConvenienceWare
- HoudahGeo from Houdah
- HoudahSpot from Houdah
- Hydra 1.6 + Aperture plug-in from Creaceed
- iArchiver from Dare to be Creative Ltd.
- iDive from Aquafadas
- iKanji 1.0 from ThinkMac Software
- JABMenu 2.0.1 from JNSoftware
- Kameleon From Option-6 Products
- Librarian Pro from Koingo Software
- MacCleanse from Koingo Software
- MacPilot 3 from Koingo Software
- Mail Attachments Iconizer from Lokiware
- Mental Case from MacCoreMac Software
- Money 3 from Jumsoft
- Nutritionist from Dr. Frank Kowalewski
- PearNote 1.0 from UsefulFruit Software
- PulpMotion from Aquafadas
- Pulpmotion Advanced from Aquafadas
- RapidWeaver 4 from Realmac Software
- Relationship from Jumsoft
- Renamer4Mac from Dare to be Creative Ltd.
- ResizeMe 1.2.0 from Dare to be Creative Ltd.
- RubiTrack from Toolsfactory software inc.
- Scorecard 1.4.1 from CynicalPeak Software
- ScreenAudit 1.3 from ArtenScience
- Scribbles from Atebits
- Secret of the Lost Cavern From Coladia
- Share Tool from Yazsoft
- ShoveBox from Wonder Warp Software SP
- Speed Download 5 from Yazsoft
- SplitFuse 1.3 from LikelySoft
- SWF&FLV Player from Eltima Software
- Syncmate from Eltima Software
- Tangerine! from Potion Factory
- Today 1. 3 from Second Gear LLC
- Together from Reinvented Software
- Toon Boom Studio From Toon Boom Animation Inc.
- VideoPier HD from Aquafadas
- Voice Candy from Potion Factory
- VoltaicHD from Systemic pty Ltd. Trading as Shedworx
- You Control: Desktops 1.3 from You Software
- Yummy Soup from HungrySeacow Software

Give Good Food To Your Mac

Did you have any of these already?

• Image Tricks – “Uses Mac OS X Core Image filters that transform pictures to unimaginable extent and apply advanced visual effects. The program can create unique artwork you may use as business card background, for web design, print materials and more.”
• ArchDetect – “ArchDetect will perform a quick Spotlight-powered search for applications on your computer, then will detect the architectures for each of them. It’ll give you the results in a nice table, which you can search, sort & filter any way you like. Find something not yet Universal? You can easily select an application, and press “Update” to pull up search results from MacUpdate – or any download site of your choice.”
• Esperance DV – “Module for System Preferences making a RamDisk. You can place temporary files for speed saving video, speed recording a lot of pictures, building your application with xCode,… RamDisk is the use of a part of read-write memory (RAM) as a hard disk.”
• PhotoBook – “A Facebook photo browser for Mac. It makes it easy and fun to manage, share, and view your friends’ Facebook photos in one intuitive interface.”
• Startrail – “Everyone likes to personalize his own Mac in various ways: wallpapers, icons, colors and even themes. But what about mouse pointer? Cannot it live its own life? Now it can. With Startrail you can add special effects to your mouse pointer!” [I found out about this one last week, and v2.0 has become shareware - I'm still using 1.5. If you can put up with this for longer than 5 minutes, I'd be surprised - but it's fun!]
• MenuEclipse – “Save your constant menu pixels from getting burned into your screen! Gain better focus on your work & play, and away from the menu bar!”
• Bellhop – “Bellhop uses a single-window interface that allows you to organize, edit and configure your services in one place. Publishing a new service is simply a matter of writing the script for your service and configuring some settings.”
• JES Video Cleaner – “Features: General noise reduction (adaptive); Remove logo; Average two movies; Remove cross-luma; Remove periodic brightness variation”
• iCal Dupe Deleter – “Straight-forward application to aid the removal of duplicates in iCal under OSX Tiger and Leopard. It is a replacement for an Applescript that had a similar function. iCal Dupe Deleter is faster, it gives the user more control over its operation and allows for a better user interface.” [I also recommend iCal Reply Checker - which is equally as wonderful.]
• Web 2.0 Icon Generator – There’s really no description for this AIR app, other than it’s an easy way to create simple “Web 2.0″ styled logos. There’s a tab for creating Adobe-ish icons, too. Silly, but potentially a timesaver if you’ve ever needed to do something like it.

What other freeware am I missing out on? I’ve seen all the popular lists, but I’m looking for interesting / awesome (but largely unknown) apps. I have a feeling I’m going to need to start compiling lists of good iPhone apps, too.

10 More Awesome Free Mac OS X Apps

I’m lucky; I still have a working iSight in my home office. I don’t really use it anymore, because newer webcams sport far better resolution, image quality, frame rates, etc. No, it’s not up for sale – it’s a collector’s item.

However, I wanted to let you know that just because a webcam doesn’t say that it’s compatible with Mac OS X… doesn’t mean that it isn’t. Many boxed products on the market today sport Windows-compatible labels, but that never stops me from plugging any USB 2.0 device into a Mac and being pleasantly surprised when it works without hassle.

I remember trying to get the Xbox 360 Vision cam working in Windows Vista – and it was a near impossible feat (you have to uninstall the driver it tries to automatically install, turning around and telling Windows to recognize it as some kind of generic video device before it’ll work properly). To get the Xbox webcam to work on Mac OS X, you merely need to plug it in – that’s it. It’s one of the best webcams out there because of the fantastic image quality, focus ring, and insanely low price.

Same holds true for the new HP webcam I just reviewed last week. Why don’t these device manufacturers put a “compatible” label on the box? I’m not sure how such certification works – if it’s that Microsoft paid them, or Apple didn’t? No matter, if you purchased the device – there should be nothing holding you back from using it on whatever OS will support it.

If you have an older webcam, or a webcam that doesn’t want to plug-and-play, download macam for uber-compatibility on OS X:

macam is a driver for USB webcams on Mac OS X. It allows hundreds of USB webcams to be used by many Mac OS X video-aware applications. The aim is to support as many webcams as possible. In addition, macam also supports downloading of images from some dual-mode cameras. macam especially tries to support those cameras not supported by Apple or by their manufacturers.

With that, I was able to eke a few frames out of my ol’ Intel Pro and 3Com HomeConnect webcams from yesteryear. Oh yes, I’m a webcam addict – I admit it. I decided to post about Mac webcams tonight after watching rizzn’s post on Logitech’s allegedly-new Mac webcam (which isn’t necessarily new). I don’t have the Logitech webcam in question, but just about every newer Logitech webcam I’ve plugged into a Mac has worked without any additional software. Here are Mark’s thoughts:

Too bad Photo Booth keeps crashing on me. :)

Mac Webcams

Exclusive Coupons: $10 off Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac

I love my Xbox 360s; I think Popfly rocks (Silverlight will bring much needed competition to Flash). Plus, I can’t live without Exchange and its server-side rules. I love my Microsoft mouse more than any other mouse in the world. Surface looks totally awesome, too.

Microsoft does some amazing things – very amazing things. My choice, however, for a primary desktop operating system is no longer Windows – it’s Mac OS X. Duh. It’s rather difficult to admit that officially, if only because… well, I think Microsoft does amazing things. They’ve also been quite supportive of my own efforts over the years, if only because they understand the value of one user.

I’m still openly willing to give feedback to Microsoft’s product teams – Windows included.

If you’re also looking to Switch, let me tell you that VMware Fusion signed on as a Video Show sponsor – and would be more than happy to help you with the transition. Realizing that many of you are hooked on Parallels, I’m guessing that VMware would do just about anything to win your attention. I also have great sponsors like Plasq.com (who make Skitch.com and ComicLife.com) and Shinywhitebox.com, who makes iShowU, Stomp, and Chatter. These are independent Mac OS X software developers with widely-accepted products.

While I don’t need to justify my actions to anybody, I feel I have 50 strong reasons to finally make the move. This is after posting a list of my favorite Mac apps a few months ago, and inspiring Brian to create Appster (so that you could blog your favorite Mac apps with ease, too).

Anybody in my chat room who watches the live video feed with any regularity knows that I’m a platform neutral geek. Keep that in mind as you read the following list:

1. Seems that the future of Windows development is happening largely for corporate environments and customers. I don’t take issue with this other than being someone who doesn’t live or work inside a corporate environment at home.
2. Excellent power management in OS X. When I close the lid to my MacBook Pro, it falls asleep. When I open the lid to my MacBook Pro, it wakes up. Imagine that! Seems to be the case 99% of the time, and it happens quickly.
3. I’m ready to experience different frustrations. OS X isn’t perfect, certainly – but I already see its noticeably more stable than Windows Vista has been. Kernel Panics at least look prettier than BSODs. :) Seriously, I just find OS X’s update schedule to be more to my liking – instead of waiting for gigantic service packs, I get minor point releases along the way to major revisions to the OS. Bugs are going to happen, but knowing that showstopping / security bugs are likely to be squished quicker gives me amazing peace of mind.
4. There’s more interesting, useful, beautiful, and affordable software being developed for OS X. If you still believe that there’s no software for “the Mac,” you’re simply a fool who hasn’t done his or her research.
5. VMware Fusion makes it possible to have every operating system at my fingertips (as well as every app that runs on ‘em, FTW). Performance and stability is a reality, not a dream. More importantly, with USB 2.0 support in VMware Fusion, I have near complete compatibility with any external hardware. Parallels is also there, which should keep competition lively.
6. I believe that the future of Windows (or any OS software layer) will be experienced in a virtual machine of some sort. People have been dual booting for years – now I can triple-task cross-platform in seconds flat.
7. Not to say that Microsoft or Linux haven’t made great strides in recent years, but… at least Leopard feels like only one team was developing the UI. It’s not quite perfect, but closer to what perfect should be. I’m not a huge fan of iTunes or every other Apple utility – but at least with Leopard, they’re trying to make them look and work the same way.
8. I love the fact that most programs and their associated libraries are self-contained (apps). There’s no stress in installing / uninstalling most programs, and for true cleanup jobs there’s always AppZapper.
9. I’m not a huge fan of the Dock for task management, but Quicksilver has virtually no Windows equivalent (in terms of elegance and scriptability, although it’s still completely overwhelming to me right now). The dock isn’t a shining example of where OS X is “better,” but I do appreciate the context menu options for each of the Dock’s icons for “Open at Login” management.
10. Spotlight is to Windows Desktop Search as a BMW Z4 is to a Ford Pinto (in terms of performance, usability, and UI). No contest. I’m sure some would argue the opposite, but… they’re also probably the extreme developer “but it works if you just learn how to use it right” types. Feh.
11. The Apple community has been infiltrated by enough people who aren’t smug. You’re not better than me just because you run another OS or support another vendor, nor are you any less of a geek. Not every Windows user is a neanderthal, although some of their dated arguments would make them out to be. I think that most consumers are caught up in the idea that you NEED Windows for everything at home. You don’t.
12. My iPhone is not going away anytime soon. Would I switch for better compatibility with a communications device? Not necessarily, but if the future of OS X is in the present of the iPhone… they’re going to gain consumer market share at blinding speed. Remember, I wanted to hate this device – after years of being a dyed-in-the-wool Windows Mobile advocate.
13. The spyware / malware / virus threat is diminished by an extreme degree. Not to say that one should avoid running protective layers of software or hardware, but… I’m just not as nervous when I try a new app on OS X.
14. Many of my friends are considering making the switch as well. This dovetails nicely with my first point. I can tell you that just by showing off the fun features of CamTwist and Colloquy with my live stream, a few of those community members have already purchased MacBooks – or are strongly considering doing so in the not-too-distant future. Interestingly enough, those are two FREE apps that work amazingly better than most overpriced Windows shareware titles.
15. Microsoft Windows completely abandoned its power users, period. Where are the Windows Vista “Ultimate” add-ons? Where are the new Power Toys? Why doesn’t Windows Media Player have podcast support yet (despite me telling them to integrate RSS back when WMP9 was in beta, years before podcasting was a buzzword)? I’m not saying that Windows is dead – not by any stretch of the imagination.
16. Boot Camp, if all else fails.
17. A single SKU of Leopard is both 32-bit and 64-bit compatible. This, alone, is a fantastic reason to embrace the platform. It’s seamless. Why should a consumer have to come to a decision on which code to run – or understand the differences between them in the first place? Remember, I’m to be considered a “home” user.
18. Time Machine. Wow. Can it really be this simple? “Simply select your AirPort Disk as the backup disk for each computer and the whole family can enjoy the benefits of Time Machine.” Do you understand what that means? And no, Windows Volume Shadow Copy is not the SAME thing.
19. Leopard’s Finder will allegedly search networked computers seamlessly, as well as allow you to access those results remotely (through a paid .Mac account, which would totally be worth purchasing at that point).
20. Java app performance is decent on OS X, and the same code looks infinitely better when it’s not running on Windows. In fact, most third-party apps are very well designed so as to integrate seamlessly with the entire OS. That’s beyond refreshing.
21. You never need to defrag a Mac’s hard disk.
22. Adium is there – an Instant Messaging client that allows you to use AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, and other accounts through a single client. It’d be my replacement for Miranda IM. Skype also works on the Mac. I expect to see even more universal IM apps reveal themselves over the coming months.
23. Bonjour is proving to be quite useful on my home network. Computers with Bonjour-enabled services are automatically discovered with virtually no fuss – even my networked Windows machines have been playing along.
24. Joining wireless networks in OS X is easier and more refined, easily accessible. The tools for networking don’t seem overly complex, either.
25. Setting up services such as Windows File Sharing, FTP, and even Web sharing can be done on OS X with just a few clicks. If you’re telling me that I could set up FTP just as easily in Windows, then… it obviously can’t be done as easily.
26. Almost all of the audio and video formats out there can be played on the Mac with Video LAN Player (VLC). One less barrier to entry.
27. Great Web browsers that work in Windows also work on the Mac (Firefox, Opera, SeaMonkey, Flock). The only exception here is Internet Explorer, or any third-party overlay to IE (such as Maxthon, which has been taking a slight turn for the worse with 2.0). Of course, there’s always the “invisible” virtual machine possibility (read: VMware Fusion’s Unity mode). Moreover, Safari / WebKit is gaining speed on all platforms.
28. Erasing deleted files placed in your trash (also known as a Recycle Bin in Windows) can be securely erased in OS X. No need to mess with third-party software.
29. You can still right-click in OS X – and the way Apple decided to implement it is far more convenient than you’d think. In fact, I find double-tapping the mouse pad far more intuitive than using a second mouse button. Didn’t take long to get used to it at all.
30. Wanna set up a VNC server on your Mac? No problem, its already apart of the operating system! Moreover, the feature isn’t buried three levels deep. It’s sitting right there in the Finder. Moreover, unlike Windows Remote Desktop, a Screen Sharing session doesn’t lock the remote user out of his / her session – one reason I’ve always loathed RDC.
31. Microsoft doesn’t have an iLife. Not even close. It has a set of multimedia applications, but they don’t seem to be cohesive in the slightest. Maybe things will get better as Live continues to evolve?
32. You really don’t get to play the blame game with Apple. They make the hardware AND the operating system, so… they really know what’s going on, and they really know if the problem is widespread.
33. A Mac costs about the same as a comparable Windows PC – for hardware and (for argument’s sake for those who don’t believe me) bundled software. And for those who still claim that Macs are still more expensive, they obviously have never seen or priced a gaming rig. Price / cost is relative. If you want a cheap machine, that’s your prerogative. The resell value on Macs has always been higher than that of an equivalent “Windows” machine.
34. You can record audio and video conversations from iChat 4.0 (natively). That’s pretty amazing, as it takes the idea of “video chat” and puts it into a time-shifted space. This isn’t just useful for those of us who conduct guest interviews regularly, but for home users who want to save calls for posterity.
35. Dashcode appears to take the geekery out of widget-building. Moreover, the new “Web Clippings” widget appears to work better than anything I’ve seen come from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, et al. This is putting the user first…
36. With a .Mac subscription, you can save common local settings as global ones. You only have to configure your Dock or System Preferences on one machine to have those same changes appear on all machines connected to your .Mac account. Unbelievable.
37. Unlike Windows font management, you can activate fonts as you need them within Leopard. This translates to less wasted overhead by fonts that remain largely unused in memory. I can only imagine this results in far less resource-intensive sessions. Genius.
38. Automator now supports UI Recording and Playback, which means you can create “macros” without understanding a lick of logic. The last time I saw a native macro recorder in Windows was… v3.0? You don’t have to be a geek to gain access to geeky-cool features.
39. Can’t tell you how much I love Spring Loaded folders. Love ‘em.
40. Wikipedia information, while not always accurate, certainly stands to be updated a lot more frequently than documentation that ships with (or from) the operating system designer. That Apple has taken the step to integrate access directly from within the Dictionary tool…? It’s just kinda nice to have there. They’re placing trust in the idea of community rather than trying to hide it from us.
41. Mail comes with “Data Detectors” which will highlight phone numbers, addresses, etc. You can then choose to do something with that information, like map it or store it as an appointment, contact, etc. This is a feature I had not seen outside of a pricey plugin for Microsoft Outlook. I may not use Mail.app, but at least they’re continuing to improve its functionality – ugly capsule toolbar icons notwithstanding.
42. The Preview tool ain’t no joke – with annotations, basic image editing, Core Animation zooming and scrolling, GPS Metadata support, batch operations, etc. It’s all at your fingertips.
43. Expose works. ‘Nuff said. The only thing that surpasses OS X’s open window management is Compiz Fusion. None of this Flip3D nonsense.
44. Help. No, seriously – Help is the way Help should have always been all along. I related my “Help” experience a few weeks ago, with the system not just finding what I was looking for help on, but taking me directly to the spot where I needed to be. I’m pretty sure the Help system isn’t 100% accurate, but it hasn’t disappointed me yet.
45. Guest accounts are purged after every session in Leopard. Wow. Guest privileges, on the other hand, seem to be lacking somewhat on the security front (but most of my Guests are computer clueless).
46. I love the Universal Access zoom feature – and have used it so many times for countless reasons. Really comes in handy when you’re trying to show something to someone from across the room. Never found anything close to its simplicity anywhere else.
47. Call me crazy, but I love the fact that in OS X, the keyboard shortcut for opening Preferences is always the same (Command + Comma). Convenient. Dependable. Quick.
48. Device compatibility doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue as it used to be with the Mac. While I couldn’t get my brand new HP LaserJet to work inside of Vista, it works flawlessly inside of OS X 10.4 (despite having to use HP’s scanning software). Still, with any USB hardware hiccups in Leopard, compatibility issues are erased with VMware Fusion until newer software is unleashed.
49. Thanks to another one of our sponsors, GoToMeeting, I’ve had the opportunity to see quite a few of my friends’ desktops. Quite a few have gone to great lengths to make their installation of Windows look and feel like Mac OS X. At that point, what’s the point of sticking with Windows? Just about the only thing Mac users might want from Windows is the Explorer (FTFF) – and even then, there’s ‘Path Finder.’
50. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Windows users need Apple’s software more than Mac users need Microsoft’s. That’s just a cold, hard fact. And given my severe disappointment with just about everything in Mac Office 2008, I’m even further driven away from Microsoft’s desktop software.

Please don’t take this post as an all-out lovefest for Apple (and it’s definitely not a hatefest for Microsoft, either). The two can co-exist peacefully if you let them, and if your routine supports it. I wasn’t ready to switch before now for a lot of reasons. This has been a long time coming.

I think it’s lousy that Apple charges for QuickTime Pro and Remote Desktop, I believe iTunes and iPhoto are inelegant management tools (Picasa for OS X would rule). At least Aperture 2.0 looks promising for me. And, for whatever it’s worth, I’ve yet to hear from anybody at Apple in respect to marketing, sponsorship, endorsement, support – or otherwise. I’d imagine they’d be interested in knowing my background, and why this leap is relatively monumental for me – and a sign of things to come for the greater part of our community.

So, let’s say that the next version of Windows is amazing – for argument’s sake. Would I switch back to the “PC” for my primary computing needs? Doubtful, because I’m guessing that virtual machine support will continue to improve in leaps and bounds (with greater hardware support to boot).

Microsoft Windows isn’t in trouble, necessarily – but I do believe that it’s better (read: somewhat safer, more affordable) to run Windows in a virtual machine with USB 2.0 hardware support than it is to run it directly on the desktop.

If you’re a gamer, all bets are off – you’re a different kind of user. Gamers are likely the reason Windows is still alive and well at home today. If the gaming industry shifted gears and started to develop OpenGL-based entertainment titles for Linux, you’d see Ubuntu adoption skyrocket. I’m a console player – still in love with my 360, as noted before. I’m a casual gamer, and I can casual game anywhere.

I’ll still have traditional PC hardware around the house – especially since Ponzi may or may not be making this switch with me. We’re still living inside of Outlook, with no other usable PIM in reach (on any platform). I’ve been showing her a few cool things that you can only do with “the Mac,” and she’s certainly seen me try Outlook 2007 in VMware Fusion. I’m also looking forward to tinkering with new systems as they’re released from a variety of OEMs. I couldn’t abandon my beloved HP All-in-One LaserJet!

Point is: I’m not going ‘all’ Apple.

In time, this will all become easier to manage – but there’s no time like the present to shelve the last ten years of Windows enthusiasm and… switch. I’m fine with being a Microsoft enthusiast in other areas, mind you – very much so. They’re doing too many good things for me to ignore, and their community involvement puts Apple to shame. My choice for an operating system is just that – my choice for an OS.

And before anybody jumps in and claims that you can achieve the same level of “happiness” after installing 50+ third-party add-ons, plugins, extensions, and utilities to Windows… you simply don’t get it, and you probably never will. 

I can’t be alone, and I’m predicting that by the end of next year, even more people will choose (and use) Mac OS X over Windows Vista. I can’t open up the phone lines anymore without being inundated with calls that suggest such a tipping point. Everybody is curious…

…and curiosity is what keeps me going.

As a power user, Mac OS X has far more to offer me in terms of tweak-ability and modularity. I learned that by trying it, not by guessing that it wasn’t possible.

I heart MacOSXHints.com. I heart TUAW.com. I heart DaringFireball.net. I heart TidBits.com. I heart so many Mac software developers (like Steve Green and Wil Shipley and Randy Green and Brian Skrab and others). I heart watching for news of some new application, though I’m not quite on any review lists yet – it seems like a simpler nut to crack than it was in the world of Windows shareware.

It’s fun again.

To end this with a bit of humor, my live stream chatters (largely Windows and PC enthusiasts) gave me other title suggestions for this post:

• C:\DIE.EXE
• 50 Reasons Why I Left Bill for Steve
• Losing My OS Religion
• Windows Broke My Heart
• Obama Says It’s Time to Change to the Mac
• /Volume/chris/switched
• How to Switch to a Mac
• The Wow Stops Now
• Got Mac?
• Once You Go Mac, You Never Go Back?

And now, I’d like to challenge any Windows enthusiast to publish 50 Reasons to switch from Mac OS X to Microsoft Windows. ;)

50 Reasons to Switch from Microsoft Windows to Apple’s Mac OS X

My friend Brandon works for Microsoft, and he also owns a Mac. He uses Windows on his Mac, but… let’s just assume that he’s not the only Microsoft employee who carries around Apple hardware (and software, given that Brandon’s running Boot Camp on it).

What about MacBU?

I can’t say that I’ve been all that impressed with Mac Office 2008. Excel doesn’t seem to be half as user friendly (and fun!?) as Numbers, PowerPoint doesn’t hold a candle to Keynote, and Word is no longer a killer app. Entourage needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up, but by the time that happens… a true Exchange-like replacement (Web and desktop accessible) may have shipped. At least the Mac Office team has relatively prolific bloggers:

• go ahead, mac my day
• Buggin’ My Life Away
• Alejandro Ramirez’ Blog
• Craig’s Musings
• Inside Entourage by Amir
• Schweib

As far as the rest of Microsoft’s Mac offerings are concerned, there’s Remote Desktop Connection, but… I hate using it on Windows, so why on Earth would I want to use it on OS X? Messenger doesn’t make any more sense, either – since I use Miranda on Windows, and Adium on OS X. Microsoft has already abandoned Windows Media Player for OS X, but VLC plays WMV and WMA well enough for me. Virtual PC was waiting to be lapped by the likes of VMware Fusion and Parallels…

I just don’t need Microsoft’s desktop software like I once did.

iTunes is a must-have app on Windows for those folks who carry around iPods or iPhones without a Mac lying around. I’m not saying that I like it (I don’t, on either Windows or OS X) – just that users have a clear reason to have iTunes installed and running on either OS. The day Apple decides to bundle Safari with iTunes downloads is the day their browser starts to make a serious dent in the browser agent pie chart. Safari on Windows isn’t all that bad, either.

Windows users need Apple’s software more than Mac users need Microsoft’s.

Do Microsoft Employees Use (and Love) Mac OS X?

Someone, who can be identified as Darwin9 in the chat room, sent me a “How to Move the Home Folder in OS X Leopard.” I hadn’t done it yet, but it’s something that I was hoping to do for my next installation.

1. Click on ‘Macintosh HD’ in the Finder and open the ‘Users’ folder. In here you will find a folder named after your shortname. This is your home folder. As it is currently your active home folder it will have a ‘house’ icon assigned to it. Copy this folder to the 2nd hardrive by simply dragging it (moving files / folders to a 2nd volume in OS X only copies the content, it doesn’t remove it from its original location). Note: The copied folder will not have the ‘house’ icon as it is not yet recognized as you active home folder. We will change this in the following steps.
2. Open the ‘System Preferences’ application from either the Dock, the Applications folder or from the Apple menu.
3. Click on the ‘Accounts’ icon in the ‘System’ section.
4. After entering your password to unlock the padlock, CTL-Click (or right click if you have this enabled for your mouse) on the active admin account (from the list of user accounts in the left pane) to reveal an ‘Advanced Options’ contextual menu. Select this item.
5. You will be presented with a pane full of advanced settings (and also a warning about how you should only change these settings if you know what you are doing!). Ignore all of these settings except for the ‘Home Directory’ option. This is the path that OS X uses to locate your home folder when you login. It should say: /Users/shortname
6. Click on the ‘Choose’ button, and browse to the home folder in the new location (this will be the folder you moved in Step 1 which will be named after your shortname). After you select the new location, the ‘Home directory’ path should change to something like: /Volumes/shortname.
7. OS X will continue to use the original home folder until you restart. So restart the computer and login as normal. To confirm that the new home folder is now active, browse to the folder you copied to the 2nd hardrive and check it has the ‘house’ icon assigned to it. Now that your home folder is successfully located on your 2nd drive, you can delete the original home folder in the Users folder. It should now have a generic folder icon as it is no longer the active home folder.

Why would you bother to move your ‘Home’ folder at all? For the same reason why I recommend you keep your ‘My Documents’ folder on a completely separate hard drive. It’s just easier to manage should something happen to your OS or primary drive. Scott added, in a follow-up email:

Everything will work just the same as normal, it’s all transparent to the user. The only difference will be that all of the stuff inside your home folder (Desktop, Documents, Downloads Pictures, Music, Movies, etc.) will actually be kept on the 2nd drive instead of on the 1st (boot drive).

This is great if you ever have to reinstall OS X, you can erase the 1st boot drive, reinstall OS X, and perform steps 2 – 7 again and you’ll be back up and running with all of your stuff in the home folder untouched! You don’t need to perform step 1 because the home folder is already on the 2nd drive at this point. You will have to install Applications and set Global and System Preferences again though as i will explain below.

All you have to understand is that OS X uses 4 distinct folders: Applications, Library, System and Users. The first 3 all have to remain on the 1st boot drive – Applications and its contents all have their permissions set to allow the System to read and write to them, so this is where you should keep ALL applications.

The Library is where all Admin level files are kept. These are files that effect every user globally like system preferences, and there permissions are set to only allow Admin users access to change things in here.

And the System folder is just that… it’s for the System only and you should very rarely have to change anything in this folder. Even if you try to mess with this folder as an Admin account holder, you will most likely be denied or asked to authenticate, because the System owns most of the files in here.

The 4th folder Users, includes a dedicated folder for each user (named after the shortname) that has been setup in OS X (This is the folder we located to the 2nd drive). All of your user files and folders and kept in here. Everything in this folder has the permissions set to allow only that individual user access to it. So the (User) Library folder in here is very similar to the (Admin) Library mentioned above, except that its contents are specific to only the user in question.

This means preferences that are specific to your personal stuff are kept in here. So things like custom application preferences, email accounts, user installed screen-savers, fonts, plug-ins and codecs, and your Desktop picture, Finder and Dock settings etc.

You could get away with changing the location of your home folder whenever you want probably, not just after the initial install. I warn against it because if something goes wrong it is effortless to start again in the beginning.

But OS X will handle moving your home folder just fine if you follow the steps I gave each time. If your wondering why it doesn’t break links between applications and preferences etc, its because OS X uses Directory Services to keep a central database of all users and the locations of their home folders etc in one place. When applications and preferences try to perform user specific actions, it all flows through Directory Services – So if you keep the database up to date by following the steps I provided, OS X will always know where everything is! ;)

How to Move the Home Folder in OS X – and Why

I’m not surprised that Vista barfed on Philip Greenspun (RE: The $1000 HP desktop tower running Windows Vista), but I am surprised at his inline follow-up comment:

I returned the system to Best Buy (a painful process that would have taken hours on a busy weekend day) and she reverted to her ancient Dell. When she receives documents from people using Macintoshes, she cannot open them. If she had a Macintosh, she would be sending documents to her professional colleagues (all Windows users) and they would not be able to open them.

I two separate (and free solutions) for anybody with this problem. Understand, too, that I’m in Brad’s camp in respect to believing that Microsoft really missed the mark with Office 2008 for the Mac (it’s not a recommended purchase).

Most people don’t use the features inside of Microsoft Word (beyond inline spell check). Assuming she’s not dealing with macro-laden documents, “Office” compatibility should not be THE thing holding her back from getting a Mac.

There’s NeoOffice or Google Docs – both of which should be cross-compatible with what most people use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for. If you want to spend money, iWork ’08 is completely worth every penny.

Philip continues his comment, suggesting that there are also Windows software compatibility issues at play. This is a much more difficult issue to deal with, as neither Parallels nor VMware Fusion have progressed to the point of being beyond brain-dead simple for the average user. The day that either one, or OS X itself, runs Windows apps natively… is the day yet one more argument for Windows on the user’s desktop disappears.

Ultimately, the solution lies in migrating to tools that (a) work via the Web / Internet, (b) don’t require platform-specific software, (c) adhere to open or largely accepted standards. Not every angle can be covered today, but I’m pretty damn sure we’re closer to desktop independence than we were last year.

Most Users Simply Can’t Switch to a Mac

Ross Snowden and I have been interacting online for a while. He emailed me again last night:

I watched a video (or perhaps it was the live feed on your site) a couple of evenings ago. You were reading a letter you received from someone who mentioned they might consider switching to the Mac operating system, and you were impressed that he considered the possibility and wasn’t strictly against the idea.

I believe the video is forthcoming, so you must have watched it as we recorded it live.

I, myself, would also not be opposed to using the Mac OS, but the only thing keeping me from doing so is that the Mac uses proprietary hardware, if I’m not mistaken. You made it sound as though the Apple used the same hardware as the PC, but isn’t that just for some of the components? If that was true, I would be able to install Leopard without any problem on my machine, no? I will try it out when, and if (and that’s a big if), Apple decides to release an operating system that installs on regular PC hardware. I would consider it, though.

ATI is proprietary? NVIDIA is proprietary? Intel is proprietary? EFI is proprietary? You, and millions of others, are sadly mistaken. Apple’s Intel computers will run a full-blown installation of Windows (just as easily as they can run a copy of Mac OS X). Moreover, it’s not really Apple’s own hardware – it’s Apple’s computer, comprised largely of countless components from third-party vendors.

It’s not the hardware itself that’s proprietary, nor is it necessarily the software itself (the OS). It’s Apple’s choice to restrict the types of machines that its operating system can run on – as it’s been proven that Mac OS X can indeed run on non-Apple hardware. It’s a proprietary cocktail, but not because of raw hardware or software limitations.

Apple controls the entire “ecosystem,” and you need to think long and hard about why that’s not so horrible for consumers. I’ve written (and talked) about this several times in the past.

Until then, I’ll stick with Vista, which, for the record, has not crashed or given me any BSOD whatsoever. In fact, for me, on my new hardware, this has been the most stable version of Windows I have ever used, and I’m using the 64 bit version!

Good for you (seriously). I’ll also stick with Vista… in a VMware virtual machine on my Mac OS X desktop.

Is Apple Proprietary?

MacBoy14 has seen the light:

I have finally given in and bought Xslimmer. This $11.95 app is AMAZING! Since you are now gonna switch to an almost all-Mac house I thought it would be the perfect time to tell you. Anyways, if you haven’t seen this app, or you haven’t bought it, I HIGHLY recommend it. If you don’t know Xslimmer, is an application that will scan through (or you can manually add) all your apps and check them against a database of apps that can be slimmed. If the app is “slimmable,” (Only a few are not, and I have just found one app so far that it said was okay but wasn’t… Airport Utility [The one in the utilities folder]) it will remove the PowerPC architecture of the app and all the additional languages of your choosing. This DRAMATICALLY reduces the size of an app and the time it takes to start an app.

I didn’t have to buy it. I got it for free from this year’s MacHeist. :) Agreed, it’s a nice app – but not without caveats. MacBoy14′s Experience: 154 Apps Slimmed and 1.43GB saved.

Performance: Almost every time I start my mac I launch FireFox, Mail, and iChat. Before the slim (after clicking each rapidly in succession in my dock,) the bouncing icons pause for 3-5 seconds and you can hear the HD of my iMac (2.16GHz Core 2 Duo with 2.5GB Ram) read rapidly… Now if I do the same thing I get absolutely NO delay or pause.

Examples:

• Colloquy – Initial: 16.3MB – Final: 6.87MB
• Address Book – Initial: 47.5MB – Final: 4.06MB
• Boot Camp Assistant – I: 12.4MB – F: 852KB
• Directory – I: 58.3MB – F: 4.76MB
• Terminal – I: 24.8MB – F: 3.24MB

If you don’t have a PPC processor, why load the code? Apple did the right thing by letting apps support multiple platforms, but there’s no use in keeping what you don’t need.

Put Your Mac Apps on a Diet

Peter Cochrane from Northern Ireland, U.K., submitted the following email. But instead of giving my response, I thought it would be interesting to hear what you’d suggest…

Hey Chris, been watching / browsing your YouTube channel for about a month now and I gotta say – great! One thing I found particularly funny was the following: I found “the iPhone rant”, then right after the video I happened to click on next was the one where you’re holding your iPhone, pretty funny in light of some stuff you had to say in the rant video! But mostly I find it very informative and much easier to check up on than reading text in a blog or review. Keep up the good work!

I know you have vast experience with PCs and know a good lot about Macs and OS X. What I’d like to know is or have your opinion on is this: what do I buy – a PC, or a Mac? The particular Mac I was looking at was the iMac for two reasons, it looks great and I can’t afford a Mac Pro (by the time I customise it!). To help you answer this question, I have included what my uses / needs for a computer system are – and I’ll also detail any other relevant information, such as our current wireless network.

He goes on to list:

1. Web browsing
2. Gaming [loves CoD2]
3. Office 2007 [Not a must if he makes the switch]
4. Synching an iPhone [when he gets one]
5. Netgear Router compatibility
6. Lexmark X3480 printer compatibility

We have these coupons and discounts for those of you ready to make the switch from PC to Mac:

• Apple Store - Save up to $100 on a New Mac and Printer (Posted on 1/16/09 and Expires on 12/31/15)
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• VMware - VMware Fusion 3 (for Mac OS X) only $79.99 (Posted on 10/28/09 and Expires on 12/31/15)

Sounds like a difficult decision he’s going to have to make… what would you do? :)

Time for an Upgrade: PC or Mac?

From my Mac genius friend, ‘Darwin9′…

File Paths? In the Finder, if you select the View menu | Show Path Bar, you get an interactive path bar along the bottom of the Finder window. By interactive, I mean you can drag files to each folder in the path bar allowing you to easily move content back through the folder structure.

Proxy Icon? In the Finder, at the top of every Finder window, there is a small icon beside the name of the current folder… the proxy icon. If you right-click (control-click) on this icon it shows you a drop down menu of the file path to the current folder your viewing, and you can click on each folder in the list to browse back to each folder in the file path. Also, this icon can be dragged to a different location to move the current folder (or OPTION dragged to copy, or COMMAND OPTION dragged to make an alias). This also applies to open documents!

That Command + Option keyboard shortcut is a godsend! I didn’t realize that was the way to do it until Scott emailed me. Any other killer Finder tips for me?

OS X Finder Tips

I’ve compiled a list of my top 100 Mac apps for your perusal, since so many people have been asking for it. Thanks to Taylor Olson and Jason for helping me put all the icons and links in place! These apps are certainly Tiger compatible, and most of ‘em work inside Leopard (though the VNC utilities are now unnecessary). I did my best to avoid overly popular titles, but couldn’t avoid it in some cases.

A rolling list of ‘Honorable Mentions’ follow the Top 100, so… keep reading. ;) Only one application is missing.

I’m also happy to announce that both VMware and Shiny White Box are coming aboard as official video sponsors – but their presence in this list is based on app merit. It’s my hope to find exclusive coupons and pricing for any of the following commercial applications… or any commercial Mac app, for tha tmatter. Stay tuned!

Which apps did I miss – especially for Windows switchers? ;)

7zX

     (Compress / Decompress 7zX Archives)

ACP Suite

     (Ultimate OS X Power Toys Array)

Adium

     (Universal Instant Messaging App based on Pidgin)

AP Grapher

     (Searches and Displays Wireless Networks)

AppFresh

     (Keeps Third Party / Apple Apps Up-To-Date)

AppZapper

     (Drag and Drop Uninstall Applications)

ASCII Projecktor

     (View Live or Recorded Video in ASCII)

Battery Health

     (Maintain Your Battery)

Bean

     (Simple Word Processor)

Bonjour Browser

     (Browse Local Bonjour Services)

Butler

     (Quickly Run Recurring Tasks)

BwanaDik

     (Monitor Networks from the Menu Bar)

ByteController

     (iTunes Controller from the Menu Bar)

Caffeine

     (Control your Mac’s Sleep Schedule)

CamTwist

     (Add Effects to Live Video)

Carbon Copy Cloner

     (Clones your Entire Mac Hard Drive)

Celtx

     (Distributed Play or Movie Script Builder)

ClamXav

     (Open Source Virus Checker)

coconutBattery

     (View and Track Battery Info)

Colloquy

     (IRC Client)

Cyberduck

     (FTP / SFTP Client)

DasBoot

     (Make your iPod an OS X Toolkit)

DeskLickr

     (Changes your Desktop with Flickr Images)

Disk Inventory X

     (Disk Usage Utility)

ffmpegX

     (Convert Video to/from Any Format)

FlickrGet

     (Gets Photos from Flickr)

FreeDMG

     (Drag and Drop Disk Imaging)

HamachiX

     (Free VPN Client)

HandBrake

     (DVD to MP4)/li>

HyperDither

     (Converts Images)

iAlertU

     (Alarm System for OS X)

Iconverter

     (Icon Extraction and Conversionl)

iGTD

     (Getting Things Done / Personal Organizer)

iPSP

     (PSP Management on OS X)

iShowU

     (Extreme Screencasting Tool)

iStat Menus

     (System Monitoring from the Menu Bar)

iStumbler

     (Wireless AP Discovery Tool)

Jarlnspector

     (.JAR Explorer)

JES Deinterlacer

     (Deinterlacer for Videos)

JollysFastVNC

     (Fast VNC Client)

Journler

     (Digital Journal)

Jumpcut

     (Clipboard Extender)

KoolClip

     (Item Locking, Instant Google)

Levelator

     (Adjusts Audio Levels in Podcasts)

Librarian Pro

     (Personal Inventory System)

LineIn

     (Enable Soft Playthru of Audio)

LiquidMac

     (Motion Sensor Liquid Fun)

Mac Pilot

     (Enable Hidden Features in OS X)

MacSaber

     (Motion Sensor Lightsaber)

MainMenu

     (Menu Bar Task Manager)

Max

     (Control CD Audio Extraction)

MediaRECOVER

     (Recover Deleted Files from USB)

MenuMeters

     (Computer Monitoring Tools)

MetaX

     (Metadata Tagger for MP4s)

Money

     (Finance Manager)

Monolingual

     (Removes Unnecessary Languages from Mac OS X)

MPEG Streamclip

     (High Quality MPEG Converter)

NeoOffice

     (Free Office Suite)

OnyX

     (OS X Tweaker)

OpenPList

     (“Edit” plist Files)

Operation

     (Project Management)

Perian

     (Enhance QuickTime Playback Range)

PrintFinder

     (Print “Finder” Folder List)

QuickSilver

     (Quick Application / File Launcher)

Quinn

     (“Extreme Tetris” Game)

Relationship

     (Customer Relationship Management)

Resize ‘Em All

     (Quick Image Resizing Application)

Rulers

     (On-Screen Rulers)

Senuti

     (Transfer from iPod to Mac)

Service Scrubber

     (Restructure the Service Menu)

Simple Comic

     (Comic Viewer)

Skitch

     (Simple Screen Shot Sharing Utility)

Sleep Display

     (Puts Your Screen to Sleep)

SlingPlayer

     (Mac Player for SlingBox)

smcFanControl

     (Control the Speed of MacBook Fans)

Smultron

     (Free XML Editor)

Stomp

     (Video Re-compressor)

Stuffit

     (The Classic Archive Manager)

SuperDuper!

     (Clone Mac Drive / Backup Utility)

Teleport

     (Virtual KVM for Macs)

TextWrangler

     (Yet Another Cool Text Editor)

The Unarchiver

     (Ultimate Archive Un-doer)

ThumbsUp

     (Thumbnail Creation Tool)

TinkerTool

     (System Tweaker)

Roxio Toast

     (Burn CDs and DVDs)

Transmission

     (Simple Torrent Application)

Turbo.264

     (H.264 Video Converter)

TVShows

     (Track Torrents of TV Shows)

Undercover

     (Anti-theft Software)

UnRarX

     (Unarchive RAR Files)

Vine Server

     (VNC Server for Tiger)

VisualHub

     (Easy Batch Video Converter)

VLC

     (The Ultimate Media Player)

VMware Fusion

     (Virtual Machine Software)

Wallsaver

     (Set a Screen Saver as the Wallpaper)

WaterRoof

     (OS X Firewall Config Tool)

WinClone

     (Clone BootCamp Partitions)

Witch

     (Better Than Command+Tab)

xPad

     (Slightly More Advanced Text Editor)

You Control

     (Puts all of your info into one spot on your Mac)

Honorable Mention (Rolling List):

• Miro -Open Source Internet TV Player
• Vienna – News Aggregator

Top 100 Mac Apps