Using a Mac for the first time is usually strange and unappealing: the mouse only has one button, expose can cause application windows to scatter all over the screen, and the hash key is impossible to find. Yet, like all great things in life — single malt whisky, the modernist novel, The Wire — it is an acquired taste which soon becomes irreplaceable.
Apple products are beautiful and designed to the last detail. There is a huge army of mac developers working on well-designed lil’ apps that make life better. Mac software encourage a fluid workflow, making the boring bits quicker and the exciting bits more even engaging. As such, going to work and having to login to Windows XP on a Dell Vostro 1500 is a somewhat bathetic experience.
There are, however, 5 apps that make working on a PC just about bearable:
1) KeyNote
No, not Keynote, Apple’s version of powerpoint but KeyNote, a very simpler outliner tool that seems to have stopped development 3 years ago. I don’t mind though, it does everything I need for writing.
2) Launchy
Application launching for efficiency is nice enough, but when they add ways to add items to Todoist and a calculator it begins to be great. You can even control itunes with it. Okay, it isn’t Quicksilver but it’s not far away.
3) Ultraedit
Simple yet fully-featured, Ultraedit is a really good, really quick code editor and ftp browser.
Like Spaces on Leopard, which it predates by several years, Virtual Dimension allows you to switch between virtual desktops — being a quick way to get rid of any clutter.
5) Firefox
Not strictly a Windows app but really quite essential what with all the extensions.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Leave a Reply