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Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

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Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#41
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does anyone recommend Quickisilver? It's suffering from massive bitrot these days. Most users report frequent crashes, hangs, problems waking from sleep, and general slowness compared to Spotlight and LaunchBar? I really wish it wasn't the case, but Quicksilver seems to have had its run and no one is stepping up to the plate to preserve it. Most everything else you list is awesome though (although I think Evernot…

I only use it because it lets me define app-starting hot keys Command-F1, F2, etc. Mac OS X doesn't, as far as I can tell. Is there any other freeware app that will let me do that?

I've heard good things about Global Hotkey: http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/Freeware/GlobalHotkey.shtm...

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#42

I'm recommending only free software here. 1. Adium for chat. It is just awesome. http://www.adiumx.com/ 2. Quicksilver. if you just want an app launcher spotlight is already good at that. http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list [edit: updated link to point to the recent versions] 3. Caffeine is small program which puts an icon on menu bar on which you can click to prevent your Mac from going to slee…

Why does anyone recommend Quickisilver? It's suffering from massive bitrot these days. Most users report frequent crashes, hangs, problems waking from sleep, and general slowness compared to Spotlight and LaunchBar? I really wish it wasn't the case, but Quicksilver seems to have had its run and no one is stepping up to the plate to preserve it. Most everything else you list is awesome though (although I think Evernot…

Quicksilver crashes on me a couple of times a week. But when it's working, it's glorious and wonderful. I think people stick with QS due to momentum and familiarity (muscle memory). I tried LaunchBar 5 for a few days and it's pretty good, very close to QS in terms of functionality, but there are slight differences in usage and plugins (social bookmarking plugin - access delicious links and tags) which keep me sticking with QS.

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#43

Others mentioned here are great. In addition, check these out: http://perian.org/ - adds native support to QuickTime for many video formats http://www.fluidapp.com/ - Fluid, SSB (site specific browsers) http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/ - LittleSnitch, Monitor and block outgoing internet connections http://www.skitch.com/ - Skitch, screen capture and sharing http://derailer.org/paparazzi/ - Paparazzi, Full s…

http://glimmerblocker.org to get rid of the annoying ads (by default keeps the Google text ads).

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#46

I'm recommending only free software here. 1. Adium for chat. It is just awesome. http://www.adiumx.com/ 2. Quicksilver. if you just want an app launcher spotlight is already good at that. http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list [edit: updated link to point to the recent versions] 3. Caffeine is small program which puts an icon on menu bar on which you can click to prevent your Mac from going to slee…

Why does anyone recommend Quickisilver? It's suffering from massive bitrot these days. Most users report frequent crashes, hangs, problems waking from sleep, and general slowness compared to Spotlight and LaunchBar? I really wish it wasn't the case, but Quicksilver seems to have had its run and no one is stepping up to the plate to preserve it. Most everything else you list is awesome though (although I think Evernot…

I'm a fairly recent Quicksilver convert (6 mos or so) and love it. I don't suffer from any of the problems you've listed and it's great for my needs.

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#47

I'm recommending only free software here. 1. Adium for chat. It is just awesome. http://www.adiumx.com/ 2. Quicksilver. if you just want an app launcher spotlight is already good at that. http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list [edit: updated link to point to the recent versions] 3. Caffeine is small program which puts an icon on menu bar on which you can click to prevent your Mac from going to slee…

This list is great. Here's some more "FREE" software (some would appreciate a donation/purchase but are not crippled):

1. This may be obvious but as of the latest version, you don't gain much from a corporate email program like Entourage. I use Apple Mail, with IMAP and Google Apps for Your Domain. One account has 3.8GB of email and another has 4.1GB, according to Google. It scales fine and stays in sync across devices. Plus Address Book links to Google Contacts, and iCal links to Google Calendar.

2. I prefer MagiCal (http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/magical) rather than Eigenclock as it includes options to put "yyyy-mm-dd [day] hh:mm:ss" by the Spotlight icon, with [day] clickable for the calendar.

3. I like SpeakTime (http://www.mecanisme.net/software/speaktime/) for putting a row of glance-able analog clocks at the lower left of my screen (semi-transparent so they look like part of the background) to be aware of alternate time zones.

4. I use Skitch (http://www.skitch.com) for screengrabs with annotations to share with colleagues/clients.

5. I use Serverskine (http://www.serverskine.com/) to keep track of server logins.

6. I use Foxmarks (http://www.foxmarks.com/) to keep bookmarks in sync across all browsers and computers.

I don't use QuickSilver, Spotlight gets the job done.

I'd also recommend the following paid apps depending on your needs:

1. iWork '09 (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) for all office apps needs with MS Office 03-07 compatibility. It's worth the $79 for the polish and usability. The "free" alternative will cost more in the long run.

2. OmniGraffle Pro for diagramming with Visio (even Visio binary file) compatibility.

3. OmniPlan for MS Project compatibility.

4. Coda for text based web development. (Yes, TextMate is in my dock. But so is Coda.)

5. 1Password for credentials management across browsers and computers

6. Things for "GTD" methodology (or OmniFocus for more features)

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#48

I'm recommending only free software here. 1. Adium for chat. It is just awesome. http://www.adiumx.com/ 2. Quicksilver. if you just want an app launcher spotlight is already good at that. http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list [edit: updated link to point to the recent versions] 3. Caffeine is small program which puts an icon on menu bar on which you can click to prevent your Mac from going to slee…

Transmission - bittorrent client http://www.transmissionbt.com/

I used to use transmission, but then I started using uTorrent, which I find has better performance. http://www.utorrent.com

Re: Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac?

#49

I'm recommending only free software here. 1. Adium for chat. It is just awesome. http://www.adiumx.com/ 2. Quicksilver. if you just want an app launcher spotlight is already good at that. http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list [edit: updated link to point to the recent versions] 3. Caffeine is small program which puts an icon on menu bar on which you can click to prevent your Mac from going to slee…

> 1. Adium Doesn't do IRC. In fact I've been unable to find any osX chat client that does IRC and IM. Anyone found a solution?

Mibbit. If you need a desktop solution, then use Fluid to turn it into an SSB.
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