weblog.masukomi.org

I’ve been torn for a while now. I love the Mac because it isn’t Windows. I hate the Mac because it isn’t Linux. But, what I recently realized is that I had stopped loving the Mac for being a Mac. I wasn’t judging it for what it was. I was judging it for what it wasn’t.

I have two different ways of interacting with a computer. Either I’m coding, or I’m not-coding. When I’m coding, nothing beats working in Linux. But, when I’m not coding I want beautiful UI and creative apps that make me go “oooooh” so badly that I shell out fifty bucks to some indie developer whose worked their ass of to create a really beautiful tool that works well. And no OS comes even close to what OS X offers in that regard. After upgrading to Leopard I’ve started using Safari instead of Firefox because the new in-page find functionality is so damn beautiful (and, as a browser it’s just short of a billion times faster). From an OS perspective there isn’t much that OS X can do that other OSs can’t, it’s just that OS X has made them easier and put a beautiful UI on them.

When I finally realized that I really do love the Mac for everything I need to do that isn’t code (and even for coding it’s not bad) I was able to more fully appreciate what was sitting in my lap.

And in order to spread that love I thought I might point you to some of the apps that were so damn good as to make me not be willing to switch fully to linux.

In no particular order we have:

• Delicious Library
• Makes adding and organizing your books and games fun, literally. Current version sucks for sharing though. Next version will address that to some degree.
• Scrivener
• I’ve looked at a lot of apps to help writers and this one takes the cake. If you’re interested please don’t get hung up on the notecards functionality. The notecards are just one small aspect of what this awesome app has to offer. It’s great for organizing your thoughts and plot-lines, outlines, anything to do with writing a long document. I’m not sure how good it is for screenplays though because I’ve never attempted to write one.
• OmniGraffle
• Visio is an ugly, ugly, stepsister, with leprosy compared to OmniGraffle. If you’re into making flow-charts nothing beats this app. It’s great for mocking up web pages too.
• OmniFocus (a GTD type app that just made the list)
• VoodooPad (personal wiki app thing that’ I hate not having on other systems)