I’ve been a Windows developer since 1988. The version of Windows I started with was just called Windows. It was before Windows 286 and the popular Windows 3.1. Prior to that, I was an OS/2 developer and much of my code for the graphics system got consumed by Windows.
So, when I switched from Windows to macOS thirty years later it was a big deal, or so I thought. It turned out that nearly every program I depend upon has a macOS version. Now I run macOS application for almost everything that I do. I’m a Mac and I’ll never go back! So, here are my top ten favorite macOS applications.
10. Parallels
There are still a few situations I find myself in that requires Windows. Many of my clients use .NET and Visual Studio. Also, the accounting software I use only runs in Windows. Parallels lets me run Windows on my Mac and it works amazingly well. My last MacBook Pro only ran Windows under Parallels for the six years I owned it without any issues.
9. Skype
Since my computer tends to be in front of me most of my waking hours, I tend to use it for everything, including communications. I use a variety of video conferencing and screen sharing software when I collaborate. Skype is a good fallback since it tends to work well even under poor conditions. I also use Skype for making free outgoing calls most anywhere in the world.
8. TextEdit
I tend to use text editors a lot. In this case, because TextEdit works well with Dragon Naturally Speaking. There’s a noticeable boost in performance for voice editing. Aside from that, it’s a basic text editor.
7. Final Draft
Final Draft is professional screenwriting software. I’m a professional writer, after all, but I only dabble in fiction and screenplays. It’s more of a stress reliever than anything else but It’s nice to have a powerful tool for writing screenplays.
6. Eclipse
Now we’re talking more language. Eclipse for Java on the Mac works just like the Eclipse I know and love on the PC. All of my code immediately ran on my Mac just like it ran under Windows. It was great.
5. Sublime Text
It’s amazing how much I use my computer for dealing with words, but again, I’m a writer. And words come in a variety of formats such as HTML, Word documents, etc. But there’s always a need for dealing with plain text and my favorite plain text editor is Sublime. I’ve been anxiously awaiting Version 3 and love it on the Mac.
4. Dragon Naturally Speaking
This program I use all the time and it changed the way I write. It’s voice recognition and it’s finally at the point where it is useful. One benefit of Dragon Professional over the voice recognition software that comes built-in to the Mac is the ability to transcribe audio files. This is the way I like to use voice recognition. I find real-time dictation is too distracting. I rather speak what I want and then later go back and edit it.
3. Mail
Being an Outlook user from the Windows world I was pleasantly surprised with Mail from Apple. I use email a lot and I really like how Mail is laid out and works on my Mac. I also like the Filter Unread button so I see what emails are still marked as unread and I have to deal with.
2. Word
Microsoft Word is a standard worldwide and across many industries. There’s one main reason for this—it works! It may be bloated and a pain in places but it still has the best implementation of Track Changes I’ve ever seen and it has tons of features, and everyone uses it. I’ve recently upgraded to Office 365 for all my family’s computers. So far it’s only been painful during subscription renewal time but they make it as easy as possible for me to part with my money.
1. Scrivener
But Microsoft Word isn’t my preferred writing tool and the file system with Finder isn’t my preferred content management system (CMS). I use Scrivener as my ideal application for creating text well as managing and presenting text. A decade ago, I’d probably say Eclipse was my number one program but today I write more prose than code and Scrivener is my favorite tool for managing my most valuable assets—my words.
Having been a Microsoft Windows user for most of my life I was reluctant to switch to macOS but I sure am glad I did. I find most things much easier and more straightforward to do on my Mac. I guess it goes to show that if you own the hardware and the software you can provide a better experience to the user.
How about you? What’s your favorite macOS apps?
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My favorite macOS app has to be a tie between Feedly and MailMate.
Feedly is an RSS reader and MailMate is an email client. What’s unique about MailMate is that messages are composed in plain text, with optional formatting provided if you write in Markdown. If you like the cleanliness of Mail.app, I think you’ll like MailMate. I’m not affiliated with the company, I’m just really in love with the product.
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