A first in a series of top 10 lists I will make, for my own part and yours. This is the top 10 software I use on my Mac. The list is in somewhat of an order, but not strictly. Firefox is clearly #1, but the last 5 are in the order I thought of them.
#1 Firefox
Firefox
I spend most of my computer time browsing, and this browser is my favorite.
- Safari week
- Early end of Safari week
This is a simple piece of built in software, but it saves me great time from having to check all my mail manually on the web.
#3 Spotify
Spotify
I use Spotify constantly for my music. It has taken over 90% of all the music listening that iTunes previously provided.
iTunes
I still use iTunes, but now mostly for podcasts and syncing my iPhone. It is still very important.
iPhoto
I have all my photos organized in iPhoto. Faces is great for finding pictures of friends when I need them, and it syncs beautifully with my cameras.
iCal
I use it both as a normal calendar and as a wake up watch. Together with a custom program I made in Automator, it wakes me up with a voice telling me custom messages, 5 times or until I turn it of.
Pages
I write a lot of stuff during my studies and business planning, and I use Pages for that. I like the simplicity and ease of use over MS Office.
Numbers
Another iWork program. This one I use for my budget and other calculations. Much better than Excel for small spreadsheets and home use.
Timeline 3D
I just purchased this piece of software, a great way to make time lines. Great both for history studies and project planning.
Adium
For the times when I want to chat on my computer instead of IM+ on my iPhone.
I am sorry I left you for almost a week, Firefox
Yes, I gave up on Safari. Two days ahead of time I am switching back to Firefox to get some real work done, faster.
Even though Safari is the faster browser, I work faster with firefox. The bookmark handling, the awesome bar and other features are just so much better. Firefox even has better drag and drop functionality, which really is a bit surprising given how Apple promotes that feature in it’s applications.
Here are the things I want Firefox to adopt from Safari:
- Speed
- Smart page for new tab (I like Opera’s speed dial even better)
Short list, I know, but Firefox really is ahead on most of the features I use. What I really would love though, is a browser that uses the WebKit rendering engine, but is compatible with Firefox extensions. That would be awesome.
Now I will probably stay with Firefox until Chrome is released for Mac, unless I decide to try Camino first. I am open to new browsers, but I feel like I will stay with Firefox for a long time, maybe until someone can match or beat the awesome bar.
safari logo
No, I am not going traveling again. I am going to try Safari as my default browser at home for a week. I’ve used Firefox since version 1.5, and I feel like I want to try something new. The main reasons I went for Safari is speed and Mac integration. Safari 4 on Snow Leopard is insanely fast.
I will post how it goes in about a weeks time. Will I miss flashblock, or all my other extensions? I know the one thing that will bring me back to firefox occasionally is firebug, but I am not an active web developer for the time being, so it won’t be that often.
What I miss already:
While I wrote this article I found some things I already miss:
- The awesome bar (searching directly from it and smart-searching my history and bookmarks)
- Google Gears (really Google? No support for Safari on Snow Leopard? Shame on you!)
Wish me luck.
