I am in the process of setting up a new machine so I figured it would be a great time to compile a list of the software I have come to rely upon in my day to day life. I would try to keep it as cross platform as possible but fortunately/unfortunately I have been a mac head for a few years now and although I am most comfortable in front of a command line I have to use a gui from time to time.

Let’s start with the root of it all: Zsh Oh-My-Zsh: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh

Also I am really liking this guy’s dotfiles: https://github.com/jelera/dotfiles

Next a good terminal Iterm2: http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home

Now a good editor VIM/Macvim: http://code.google.com/p/macvim/

Checkout my MINIMAL list of VIM plugins and vimrc.

Ruby/Rack

    Just started using Pow 0-config stack: http://pow.cx/ It comes with RVM so it really can't hurt that much.
Turns out that pow starts a node server and reset’s the mac firewall to point ALL http traffic at it. This will cause you MANY “WTF”s as you try to find out why you can’t run apps in any other http application stack. Sorry pow you are out. Standar RVM install and then macruby or your favorite ruby blend on top.

PHP/Mysql Why not use MAMP and save yourself some time: http://www.mamp.info

Package Management I was an avid macports user for a long time but now I am strictly Homebrew: http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/

Now install your favorite git/svn/hg/postgres/mongodb/python/perl versions!

Don’t forget wget/curl/tmux/screen

A way to browse Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome

A way to browse with only the keyboard Vimium: http://vimium.github.com/

A way to communicate: Adium: http://adium.im/

The new iChat in lion is pretty nice too!

Arrange windows intelligently: Optimal Layout: http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout/

Share files DropBox: http://www.dropbox.com

Backup files: Jungle Disk: http://www.jungledisk.com Also looking forward to the new iCloud.

Keep Notes http://www.evernote.com

Mail/Calendar/Documents GOOGLE! I know it’s crazy to trust them with everything but it’s so friggin easy! I download and backup all of my content regularly on s3 and locally.

App Launcher For the most part I use spotlight but I have been using Alfred: http://www.alfredapp.com lately as well.

Virtualization I have tried other hypervisors but keep coming back to VMware fusion: http://www.vmware.com/mac

IDE I am trying not to use these big heavy guys these days but if I need to step through a debugger I have to admit it’s much more fun to use a gui than it is to use the cli of (insert first character of language here)db.

One Eclipse for javascript/node.js: Latest with v8 debugger: https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Using-Eclipse-as-Node-Applications-Debugger

Another Eclipse for Android/java: Latest with the android sdk: http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html

Netbeans 6.9.x with the Ruby/Rails support is nice: http://netbeans.org/features/ruby/index.html

Netbeans 7.x with the PHP/Symfony support is also nice: http://netbeans.org/features/php/

Of course. Textmate. But I have to say this software is getting more and more outdated. Can I just re-iterate for the millionth time Where the hell is textmate 2? http://macromates.com/

There will certainly be more to come. This is just what I could think of in an afternoon.


Published

08 September 2011