VMWare Fusion

VMWare makes the ultimate virtual machine technologies. The software allows you to run all sorts of different virtual machines at the same time, think of them as fully configured systems inside one computer, all running at the same time and at high speed. The software itself loads operating systems of almost any kind, and it shares hardware resources eloquently to allow people to run Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, Windows 2000, Windows 95/98/ME and even DOS/Windows 3.1 on a modern computer. For Unix fans such as myself, it also supports FreeBSD (and other BSD Unix like OpenBSD and NetBSD), plus Linux and Solaris on Intel too. And surely others. Personally I have virtual machines for Windows XP, Windows 2000, and several FreeBSD web servers, allowing me to clone websites. I can easily boot them up and shut them down from inside my Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook, with 4Gb of RAM. My work laptop had only a paltry 512Mb - an eighth of my Mac's RAM and half the processor, so the system runs much faster as a VM than on the native hardware! VMWare technology is like a rebirth of the mainframe on a PC. I find it very cool for myself, for hackers, for power users, and people switching from Windows. Even the average person who needs to do something unique can use this software and "carry" their old computer, and all its data, along as a file on their latest PC... for future reference.

Update: The 1.1.2 Update now adds Time Machine support, so my two Windows XP desktops (work and home) will get backed up automatically - and wirelessly - through my 1 Terabyte TimeCapsule 802.11n G-band wireless router. Cool stuff, I've been waiting for this feature.

Adium instant messenger

Without a doubt, Adium is the coolest instant messaging client ever made. It is highly Mac-centric in design, with a great user interface and an active community of developers. It supports just about every network, from Yahoo and MSN to AOL, ICQ, Jabber, and many more. It's open-source, so it's free to use. And yes, the eyes do open when it's running, and close otherwise.

The only reason I don't use it more is it's instant messanging... great for colleagues and friends, but not so good for customer-facing communications. Messaging appeals to our younger generation very much at times, and it gets people interested in computers (whether they do instant messaging on a smart phone or not).

iPhone still delayed

The iphone is a great looking phone, unfortunately it is not available in Canada yet. Rumors have it that the Rogers/Fido network might get it, but hopefully Telus or Bell retails the product -- or perhaps all of them in Canada do, to increase sales here.

No link to Apple because it's not for sale here.

More Great Software for Mac OS X below

Firefox - web browser

I still use Safari as my main browser, but I install Firefox almost right away. It's always good to have a second browser, you never know when you might need it. It's a free, highly customizable browser that many people like more than Internet Explorer. And it has more features than Safari, particularly for anonymous browsing. This is the Netscape browser, reloaded, pluggable and very powerful.

Microsoft Word

It doesn't need any introduction. Word is the best word processor ever designed, and Word 2008 and the rest of the Microsoft Office 2008 suite is native to Mac OS X. It's a little bulky and slow to load, but once it's running there's no turning back. Many folks wouldn't have bought a Mac if Microsoft Office wasn't available, but fortunately Apple and Microsoft have a good working relationship. Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage (their Outlook clone) work just fine too.

Tomato - BitTorrent client

Tomato is a small, lightweight, and free BitTorrent client with many features. If you like simple and fast, this is the BitTorrent client for you.

Google Earth - mapping software

This is amazing 3D mapping software of the Earth and the Solar System. Google Earth runs on other platforms like Windows too, but it's fully supported and customized for the Mac. Zoom into where you live and see an arial view of your city. Also works great with the Google Sketchup 3D drawing software... which is fun and easy to use.

TextMate - text editor

TextMate is a good text editor with syntax highlighting for OS X. It lacks text formatting features because it is a programmer's editor. It is usually "pretty good" at the syntax highlighting, for languages that include HTML, PHP, C++ and Java. TextMate is simple, powerful editor for programmers and hackers. It comes without the baggage (or price) of comparable programs like BBedit for the Mac, which seems to be for people who used Macs like 20 years ago (I'm not one of those people). The program looks simple but under the hood it is extremely powerful, with macros, in-line spelling, tons of of plugins, customizable color/font schemes, and more. I like that it's fast and simple.

Transmit - ftp/sftp client

Actually I used the free Cyberduck ftp/sftp program for years and really liked it. But it crashed all the time, so I found Transmit. Transmit is perhaps the most popular of applications in this genre, and supports the Growl plugin, has its own Widget, and settings can be synced with .Mac as well.

SuperDuper! - backup program

Despite the dumb name, SuperDuper is the best backup program for the Mac. More than just backups, it creates perfect clones of your drive, and supports "smart updating" that only has to transfer the changes since the last time you backed up. This program has saved my butt numerous times, and is perfect for a failing hard drive, transferring your system from one Mac to another, or just backing up to prevent data loss. The free version supports basic backups and works in a pinch, but buy the license to get the full functionality like smart updating.

Business Card Composer - design software

There is no simpler, easier-to-use program like this on the planet. The developers of Business Card Composer pioneered simple yet amazing features like alignment marks that pop up when you are moving/resizing/changing any piece of text or graphics. That means everything lines up on the business card, so it's perfect for everyone, even for idiots like me. Anyone can make a professional business card in just a few minutes.

Perian - Quicktime plugin

Perian is a collection of codecs you will need to see video content made on Windows machines. The developer calls it "the swiss army knife for Quicktime" or something like that. If you watch video files, downloading Perian (free) saves a lot of time installing all these codecs manually.

Flip4Mac - Quicktime plugin

Flip4Mac is codec software and you absolutely need it if you want to view Windows Media Files (videos) with the .wmf and .wmv format. The plugin itself is free, but if you try to use it in applications like iMovie you have to buy the software... ugh. Apple should be providing this functionality for free, without the need for a 3rd party plugin.

Lux - Risk-like game

I don't play many games on my Mac, but Lux is one of them. It's like the board game Risk, but much more automated. It supports multi-player over the Internet, and runs on just about anything (Mac, Windows, Linux) so all your friends can play.

Unison - Usenet binary grabber

Unison is the closet things to Newsbin Pro on Windows. It allows you to very quickly download binaries from the Usenet, a network on the Internet that predates the Web. Everything from music, pictures, videos and files can be found on the Usenet... along with the most dedicated group of discussion forums ever created. Unison has a Mac interface and works well, though I find the navigation slightly confusing.

NeoOffice - word processor

NeoOffice is a free word processor based on the Open Office software. It fully supports Microsoft Word 2004 compatibility, and works well with Office 2007 too. It's great for people who are too cheap to buy Apple's Pages application (part of iWork), or Microsoft Office for the Mac, or for people who just believe a good word processor should be free. It runs well and the interface is customized for the Mac, but it's a large program that is resource-heavy... just to load the word processor, you are also loading the spreadsheet and presentation programs at the same time.

ViewIt - picture viewer

ViewIt is the closest thing to ACDSee Classic on Mac OS X. It is a lightweight, very fast picture viewer that does not use or require its own database. Just point it at a directory and it will show you all the thumbnails, and it supports full-screen viewing as well. It worked fantastic on OS X Tiger (10.4) and works well on OS X Leopard (10.5) too, but the CoverFlow feature of the Finder has almost made this obsolete... I bought this program a few years ago and have no regrets. Shareware that is fully-functional and free to try.

ImageWell - picture editor

ImageWell is a small, simple way to edit graphics. I use it just to resize/crop images and save them in different formats. It used to be 100% free, but now it is feature-restricted unless you buy it. I still use the free version, only because I don't need the advanced features.