Loved Macs but had to switch to Windows in 1999. In 2010, given the Unix based OS and prominence of the iPhone I purchased an iMac. It's been an ongoing process to match the software and tweaks I have for Windows 7.
To keep things clean, I use the following notation,
* - Can be manually dropped into the system without an installer and can be made portable (not reliant on the Operating System).
~ - Semi-portable. Can be setup without installer but will set itself in the Operating System.
32-bit - Only 32-bit version exists.
@ - Open Source
% - Free
$ - commercial product
To have multiple windows, run,
open -n /Application/VLC.app/ |
Note, the playlist tends to go over the same place so it's not obvious sometimes if it worked. Figure out a parameter to fix this later.
Yet to try. This absolutely drives me nuts as a programmer. Home should go to the beginning of the line and end to the end of the line. On the Mac OS home takes you to the beginning of a document and end to the end of a document.
Yes, you can use Apple Key left Arrow and Apple Key Right Arrow (but I override this to move my Windows). However, as a programmer using SHIFT to highlight it starts becoming awkward.
This post may work http://architectryan.com/2012/10/03/remap-home-and-end-on-os-x-mountain-lion/#.UQ9JKOjICX0 |
One solutions is to use key mappings but it does not work across multiple applications.
If you used the gui to add any custom key bindings the ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict will already exist. Otherwise create it by launching Terminal,
cd ~/Library/ mkdir KeyBindings touch DefaultKeyBinding.dict |
Create the file or add to the file (if it already exists),
{ /* Remap Home / End to be correct :-) */ "\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; /* Home */ "\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:"; /* End */ "$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /* Shift + Home */ "$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /* Shift + End */ } |
This fixes things for more editors and applications. However, Browsers have their own wrinkle.
Transmission - used in Ubuntu for a long time and it works great. Also nice is a web interface to manage your torrents from other computers or devices.
Microsoft has a free RDP program for the Mac to connect to your Windows systems.
Simple Comic - This is the first one I found. Really nice and simple app. However, found a bug in how it handles splash pages due to numbering in the CBR community. See bug filed here https://github.com/arauchfuss/Simple-Comic/issues/20. Somebody please let me know of an alternative.
ComicZeal describes this bug well and fixes it. Unfortunately it is only for the iPad.
Jomic - Their revision history v0.9.9 shows compensation feature for splash pages. Needs Java, has a bad interface and it does not fix the page re-ordering.
ComicBookLover - tried it, does not fix the issue. I sent them an email, Nov 2011 asking them to fix this.
ShareMouse* - Looks better than Synergy. Took 5 minutes to setup... but when I tried, Oct 2011 still buggy.
Afloat is a program that can keep your windows "afloat" on top of other windows. Mac OSX lacks this functionality and Afloat does a great job of keeping windows always on top. You can also play with transparency settings. What this program really does it install a SIMBL Plugin. If you want to uninstall it, simply locate /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins and remove it.
It doesn't work very well (rather its not that compatible) with OSX Lion. I find that it really only works with Chrome and a few other windows. Hopefully future updates will make it more compatible but for the programs it does work for, it does it well. You can press Control, ⌘ + A to toggle sticky window on or off. Control, ⌘ + PLUS or MINUS to change transparency on the fly.
KeePassX * - a central place to keep your important data with one master password or master key file. If you are using the Windows version at the same time, you will want to make sure to pick an older version of KeePass that matches KeePassX's data format. As of March 10, 2013 my version of KeePassX uses KeePass KDB (1.x).
Lacking here. What I'm looking for:
Terminal Manager as good as Putty Connection Manager but leveraging the existing Mac Terminal Program - would be nice to get putty functionality like right-click to paste and keep on top,
Something as nice as BitVise Tunnelier for port forwarding.
ExpandDrive (create a map drive over SSH for easy development). ExpandDrive hands down is the best tool I found yet for Mac and Windows.
...
Napkin (appstore) - Looks like a good Page Annotation utility with nice call-out features.
Homebrew - package manager to download Linux command line tools in a controlled manner (it does not put things everywhere). After Homebrew is setup (put instructions when using normal accounts), I install,
fing - wake on lan and network information (also available as an app)
wolcmd - wake on lan terminal and ui client - still to prove this works as expected
caffeinate - disable sleep until CTRL-C is pressed
Enable ssh login through the UI by clicking "System Preferences", "Sharing", checking "Remote Login" and allowing access to your preferred accounts.
Then try user password authentication and also try Key Based Authentication as outlined in the Ubuntu articles (the instructions are compatible).
Only after you have ssh key authentication working go to the final step to further harden to not allow passwords.
Tested on OS X 10.12.4 and 10.9.3,
Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config or in older versions there may be, /etc/sshd_config using a sudo enabled account,
PasswordAuthentication no |
No need to restart ssh daemon. New sessions will require a key,
sudo launchctl stop com.openssh.sshd sudo launchctl start com.openssh.sshd |
For older OS X you might need to run,
sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist; sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist |
You can determine your Mac build date and a bunch of other information by using your serial number and hitting various websites that provide this service,
Alternatively you can download the application coconutID.
If you right-click on your dock you will notice a history of recent items even if you set the application to clear or not retain history. Simon Heimlicher wrote a good article.
http://www.cultofmac.com/180925/how-to-make-a-bootable-disk-or-usb-drive-of-os-x-mountain-lion/
http://appzapper.com - I went to delete Transmit and it still left files in /Users/tinpham/Library/Application Support/Sparkle. Not impressed.
Any help and suggestions would be appreciated.
Notepad++ is the BEST general purpose fast loading editor to replace notepad that I have ever used. Unfortunately, it is built only for Windows. Here are the key features I use and looking to replicate on Mac OS X,
Nice to have
|
So I am building a list starting from Alternative To and Google. Will test each of these out and see if they meet my above requirements.
Reading reviews order is,
Sublime - well they has a very slick website. Trying out Jan 16, 2013 version 2.0.1 Build 2217,
UltraEdit - I remember it back in the day. Not as fast as NotePad++ at the time but it was just as feature rich.
TextMate - recommended by what appears to be a hard core developer. Trying out Jan 16, 2013 version 1.5.11 Build 1635,
Text Wrangler and the Commercial version BBEDIT - Recommended by this blogger with comments suggesting others too. Trying Jan 16, 2013 BBEDIT version 10.5.1 Buiild 3250,
Editra - showed up in more than one review.
JEdit - Used to use this a far back as 2000. Being Java based it was slow, however, maybe it's fast now on modern iMac.
Komodo free and Paid Version - Looks promising.
Emerald Editor - Successor to Crimson Editor.
Notepad++ Port - Well it uses WINE so it's not native code... try if I can't find an equivalent.
Coda - Not designed as a fast light weight editor.
MacRabbit Espresso looks promising.
All solutions listed so far seem to have chances of corruption or losing data. |
http://www.paragon-software.com/ntfs/ufsd.html - not sure if free.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24481/ntfs-3g - free and commercial version with more features (used by Cheryl).
Looking at more utilities to take advantage of my keyboard shortcuts,
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2008110213334872 - this one lists Griffin Proxi as a verified solutions to remap keys and a few others.
http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=ukelele - this might allow me to remap keys and take advantage of my ibm keyboard.
http://jdwyah.blogspot.com/2008/03/mac-leopard-os-x-windows-convert-color.html - fixing the end key
I am not happy with any options so far. So I have been using the command line ssh client with the config file. Maybe I need to write my own. |
http://www.lightnetcom.eu/products/remote-connections-manager.html - Looks promising with a tree view. Does not look like I can customize the shells. Unable to open multiple connections at once. The interface was clunky. Not impressed.
http://www.grepsoft.net/index.php - this one I can customize the shells, but the bookmark + groups instead of tree view does not look as nice.
Expand Drive - Is the best one out there right now for the Mac. As of Expand Drive 2.3.1 and Transmit 4.1.7 we found Transmit to be slow in comparison. Also your Expand Drive license works for both PC and Mac.
Comparative Analysis
Similar to Expand Drive - http://panic.com/transmit/ - but SLOW. Also have to right click to mount as it is not the default. Not impressed so far. But it does have a saving grace. There is an option to put it up on your upper right task menu and mount drives that way. For the mounting of drives, panic actually uses a open source software, macfuse. Free, recommended by Garth and the actual underlying layer used by transmit for mapping drives - http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/ - Example, sshfs gdahlstr@10.248.143.13:/ ~/mnt/UAT/batur1app4-URS/ -oauto_cache,reconnect,volname=batur1app4-URS Also, this link seems to say you can use sudo with sshfs http://serverfault.com/questions/158392/how-do-i-sudo-over-sshfs Dec 15 - I've also tried Transmit 4.1.7 and it is still slow. At $34, I would not recommend using this. I also have had problems running MacFuse because as of right now, the 64-bit kernel is unsupported. There are hacks to get around it, but it hasn't worked for me so far. – Duncan |
Recommended by Garth for command line tools - http://www.macports.org/
http://kapeli.com/dockview/ - get live preview when hovering over dock icon like Windows 7.
Coda - Tried version 1.7.5 in 2011. By same makers as Transmit. Has really nice interface and uses Transmit for mapping. Has almost everything except ssh client windows are not embedded in the editor.
Here are the configuration changes I mace to the Mac OS X.
Apple Menu - Dock - Turn Magnification On
View - Show Path Bar
View - Show Status Bar
View - Customize Toolbar and then drag the "New Folder" icon onto the toolbar. Click Done.
Control-UpArrow - Show all open Windows which I remap to CTRL on right side of keyboard.
Here are the shortcuts I use the most.
Control-UpArrow - Show all open Windows which I remap to CTRL on right side of keyboard.
Contrl-DownArrow - While on an active Application Window will show only the Windows for that application
WinKey-BrowseLeft/BrowseRight - Near my IBM's arrow keys allows me to switch browser tabs.
AppleKey-RightArrow - Jump to End of a line. In browsers this acts as forward in history.
AppleKey-LeftArrow - Jump to Beginning of a line. In browsers this acts as backward in history.
Read a few reviews and they seem decent and interesting - http://mac.appstorm.net/category/reviews/
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/ - Apple's official store has both free and commercial software.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/29983/remote-connections-manager - has reviews.
http://alternativeto.net - this looks promising not only for Mac software.
http://www.oakinnovations.co.uk/blog/2007/01/14/5-reasons-why-osx-is-an-unbeatable-web-development-system/ - looks like a good list.
Good roundup of products - http://mac.appstorm.net/category/roundups/
Developer's roundup - http://www.rockettheme.com/blog/75-mac/499-essential-apps-for-mac-based-development
Pretty nice list presented well - http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/productivity-roundups/30-great-apps-for-developers/