Migrating to MAC OS X
I've put together this page to try to illustrate how powerful MAC OS X has become now that its based on BSD and Darwin. I'm trying to show that everything you can do on Windows and Linux (*nix) is possible and enjoyable using MAC OS X. I'm also going to try and keep this page updated with MAC OS X 'killer apps' for new users as it can be difficult when moving to MAC OS X to know what apps to use for usual tasks.
Why Migrate?
My reasons for migrating to MAC OS X where numerous. Firstly, i didn't like Windows anymore (bloatware, insecure etc) and wanted to change desktop OS. I've used Linux and BSD for years as a server OS and love the power of the console and OpenSource. I tried using Linux as a desktop OS a couple of times, and although kde/gnome are great i got fed up of the lack of a polish of the Linux desktop and more often than not ended up using my Windows box instead. Finally, i got fed up of the laptop i had, a ACER desktop replacement hunk of junk, which although high spec (centrino, 512RAM, DVDRW, 15" etc), was just badly made and too big. So, like many people this year i had got a ipod and loved it, so was further temped by apple products.
So i took the risk and splashed out on the cheapest ibook on the uk apple store, which with nus academic discount + a case + bluetooth came to a reasonable £700. When i got it, i was instantly impressed with the smooth design, the friendly beep on the first boot and the compact size. However after the initial slight confusion of figuring out how to use MAC OS X, i discovered the terminal app, and to my amazement i've got a full blown BSD console, excellent :-). Even better, shortly after i got the ibook i discovered fink and could install any linux stuff i needed, like xfig/tetex etc. So why migrate??? Well what i'm saying is that there are no reasons not to, the OS is clean and stable with regular updates, there is inherent linux-like support, and any application you need...
Killer Apps
Here, i list what i (as a new MAC OS X user) consider to be the best apps for specific tasks on MAC OS X. I'm only looking at free apps or apps which come with MAC OS X. As freesoftware is generally open, they are probably better than paid-for-software anyway. Why pay for it, when you can get it for free :-). I'm calling them killer apps as prospective MAC OS X users would consider their presence to be vital to its useability.
Web Browsing
Firefox is a fast and efficient web browser developed by the people at Mozilla. Get it here. As well as being superfast and having a great rendering speed it also offers integrated tabbed browsing and is much more secure than IE.
I like MAC OS X Mail (called mail.app) as it has the cleanness of implementation of the OS itself and great integration with the address book. It has also the best implementation of a imap4 client that i have used, much better caching/connections/folder representation etc than outlook and thunderbird.
Messenging
The Adium instant messenger is a crackin little instant messenger client. It supports all the popular protocols, yahoo/msn/aim etc. It has a very clean interface like MAC OS X and it very intuitive. Get it here.
Remote Access
Apart from the ubiquitous (and included) ssh, vnc access can be gained by using the excellent vnc client, "Chicken of the VNC". It is easy to use and supports all the different compressions. Get it here.
Music
iTunes is probably the best audio cd ripper/writer/jukebox/mp3 device integrator i've ever used. Its just so easy to use and does everything you will need to rip music and organise it. Also handy if you have a ipod ;-). Info about iTunes here
Video
Mplayer is pretty much the best media player around, it can play nearly every format known to man, including some pretty obscure ones. So its great news that there is a port for MAC OS X, available here.
Package Installation tools
Anyone coming from MAC OS X from gentoo or debian will expect a package installation method. This comes in the form of fink which "is a package management system that aims to bring the full world of GNU and other common Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X".
Additionally, for the gui inclined is the tool "fink commander" which is available here.
WYSIWYG Word Processing
OpenOffice is available for MAC OS X, but my favorite is abiword which gives you most of the features of microsoft word. Abiword is available here.
Type Setting
You can install latex in mac os x by executing "sudo fink install tetex" at a command prompt.
TexShop is a great GUI for editing and simply rendering tex documents. Get it here.
Terminal Emulation
iTerm is a brilliant terminal emulator for MAC OS X. It supports transparency by default and great tabbed windows. iTerm is available here.
Calendar
The MAC OS X calender does exactly what it says on the tin, a pretty nice implementation.
Contacts
I found MAC OS X address book a bit clunky to use at first, but its OS/device intgration make it worth the effort to use.
Device Integration
The above mentioned Calender and Contacts sync great with a bluetooth mobile or iPod.
Collaborative Work
Heres where MAC OS X really excels. I was amazed when one of my students showed me some cool apps which they use regularily in lectures to collaborate on notes etc. The tools are much more polished on MAC OS X than any other OS.
Image editing
The GIMP is available through the fink package management tool. You'll first need to install X11 for apple...get it here.
Install gimp using "sudo fink install gimp".
Peer-to-Peer
There is a implementation of bittorrent for MAC OS X in the shape of Tomato Torrent, which can be downloaded here.
For file sharing there are lots of apps, however one of the easiest to use using the gnuttela network is Limewire, which can be downloaded here.
Server side
Of course, one of the biggest advantages of using UNIX is the easy availability of the best server apps around.
MAC OS X comes with a full apache, with php/ssl modules included, the configuration files are at: /private/etc/httpd.
Docs and useful Links
Apples index of third-party software
The Open Source section of apples site
www.macosxhints.com|: Daily MAC OS X hints
www.versiontracker.com: Indexes the latest and greatest
Feel free to email me at 
kevin@kevin-lee.co.uk if you feel i've missing a true killer app :-).
