Wednesday, December 7, 2011

My Must Have MacOS X Extras

So, when I started my new job I was issued a shiny new MacBook Pro 13. I asked for recommendations for must have free or open source software from some of my Mac savvy friends. Below is my current list of third party FOSS software that I use daily or frequently.


  1. iterm2 - I haven't even begun to scratch the surface on all it's capabilities.
  2. F.lux - Good for the eyes ;-)
  3. Dropbox - Important files from any location.
  4. KeePass - I love it for it's cross platform goodness. I run it on Linux, Windows, MacOSX & Android. I keep the database available to all via DropBox.
  5. ClipMenu - Just started using this. I'm a long time user of Parcellite clipboard manager in Linux land.
  6. Time Out - Helps me remember to take short breaks throughout the day. I generally use Workrave on other platforms.
  7. Chicken of the VNC - Nice way to access a GUI session via either TightVNC or X11VNC running on my CrunchBang (#!) Linux workstation when I'm not in the office. Course I mainly just ssh in from iterm2.
  8. Chrome - I know studies show Safari is faster on MacOS X, but I use chrome on Linux and Windows so why not here, too?
Given all that, what's the best way to keep all of those and a few other less crucial tools up to date? On my Debian or Ubuntu based systems it's just a matter of doing a `sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade' (or dist-upgrade). Voila' all my software is upgraded. I remember back in the day reading about Fink and ports for Mac OS X. Anyone using them? Got other suggestions?

No Progress Yesterday

I didn't do anything toward my website building goal yesterday, Friday 04 March 2022. I'll pick it up again today.