What tools, software & applications do I use? v2.0
This post is intended as a couple of things. Firstly, it’s a rewrite of a post I wrote a while ago that covered the same thing as this one covers but from when I was running Windows.
I’ve actually had a couple of people ask me what tools I use for various tasks so I’m going to compile a list of the various applications I use ‘every day’. That’s in quotes as obviously I don’t use all of these tools EVERY day but I consider them part of the list of tools I couldn’t do without. I don’t use anything particularly special but I’ll make this list for those that’ve asked anyway. Secondly, I keep meaning to make a list of tools I use for my own reference so it’ll double as that, too.
I’m not going to go into a whole load of detail about what the benefits of each one are – I’ll let you work that out for yourself if you want to try them (feel free to contact me if you want to discuss any of these though). I will include a couple of things which aren’t strictly applications too, e.g. hosting services. So, here we go – these details are correct as at January 16th, 2010.
Operating system :: OS X 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard) on 27″ iMac. I made the switch from Windows a month or 2 ago and am wishing I’d done it years ago.
Office Suite :: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac … unfortunately I have to say that compared to the Window version this really is quite crap.
Email client :: Thunderbird 3
App dev environment :: Xcode 3.2.1 when writing for OS X, Visual Studio Express (C#) when writing for Windows (Parallels Desktop)
Web dev environment :: Aptana Studio 1.5 w/ Aptana PHP Plugin – unfortunately 2.0 is still a bit too buggy for me.
MySQL administrator :: Navicat Lite
Text editor :: TextEdit, built into OS X
FTP client :: FileZilla 3.1.1
Primary browser :: Firefox 3.5
Twitter client :: Tweetie
Password storage :: KeePassX – *highly* recommended on both OS X and Windows (the Windows version is called KeePass).
iPod manager :: iTunes – on OS X it’s actually really good and 100x more stable than the rather pitiful attempt iTunes for Windows is …
CD/DVD burner :: None, built into OS X
Photo processing :: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.6 – I used to use Capture One 4.8 from Phase One but it started to fall WAY behind Lightroom in terms of post-processing options … a real shame.
Fitness management :: Polar ProTrainer 5 inside Parallels Desktop
Instant messaging :: Windows Live Messenger
Movie player :: VLC (everyone should use this although it struggles with the TSCC codec unfortunately)
Audio player :: iTunes
Archiving utility :: Built into OS X
One thing you might notice is they’re pretty much all free tools with the exception of Lightroom and Polar Pro Trainer 5, all of which I own licenses for (no they’re not pirated!).
Website host :: ICDSoft – these guys are AMAZING. I wouldn’t use anyone else for Unix hosting.
Email service :: Gmail
Blogging engine :: Wordpress 2.9.1
Online photo sharing :: Flickr (I own a ‘Pro’ account)
RSS feed management :: FeedBurner
Website statistics :: Google Analytics
Search engine :: Altavista … haha yeah right. 
Bookmarks :: Delicious – I stopped using browser-based bookmarks many years ago.
That’s about it really. As I said earlier I’m happy to discuss any of these if you like – just post a comment or use the Contact Me link at the top of the page.
Thanks!
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