PowerBook Ahoy!

For years, Apple had always been that “other computer” for me. And, over those years, I didn’t have much respect for it since used cooperative multitasking and lacked a command line interface. But, Mac OS X changed all that.

Since its release, I’ve been keeping OSX in the back of my mind. “As a whole,” I thought, “would it be a useful computing platform for me?” But, still, I largely dismissed it since I had no compelling reason to switch from my current hardware. After all, Windows did what I needed it to do and I was used to it.

But over time, my Athlon 700 just didn’t seem as fast as it used to. Sure, it was pretty chipper back when I built it in ’99, but it just seems dwarfed by today’s 3 Gz monsters. So, even a year ago, I knew that a new machine was on the horizon.

Since I was going to buy new hardware anyway, a Mac once again came into consideration. Sure, I was well versed with Win2k and a virtual newbie to Mac OS, but Microsoft’s evil-factor pushed me to look for alternatives (I saw no need to pay money to a dishonest company).

The real turning point for me was SXSW 2003. The conference halls were WiFi-enabled and, being geeks anyway, many of the participants had laptops. What surprised me, though, was that about nine out of ten laptops were Macs — and these were people that I trusted within my field.

Ben and Mena Trott, Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric A Meyer — all Macs. If a good buying decision is founded on advice from people you trust, then my choice was clear. At that moment, I knew that — as a web developer — a Mac would be suitable for me.

My next step was getting the timing right. As a hardware buyer, nothing feels dumber than buying a model and having its successor come out the following week ;). In that regard, I found Mac Rumors’ Buyer’s Guide very helpful — it lists statistics such as the average number of days between a product’s updates and the number of days since the last update. So, that at least allows buyers to make a fairly well-timed purchase.

But statistics aren’t very comforting when a product surpasses its average-update-interval by days and then weeks —. July dragged into August which dragged into September. And, PowerBooks were nowhere in sight. But, my Athlon 700 wasn’t a complete paperweight yet, so I decided to just wait it out. Sure enough, new PowerBooks were released in mid-September. So, I set aside some of the proceeds from a freelance gig at the time for a PowerBook.

Since it would be my first Mac, I didn’t want to rush into anything. Interestingly enough, choosing the PowerBook model was the easy part — I needed more than 1024x768 (which crosses-out the 12”) and the 17” was just too big. So, I settled on the 15” with SuperDrive.

I next had to decide on the store, which at first seemed a bit tough (since there’re about a dozen online Mac retailers). But, MacPrices made quick work of that. Their site lists the prices for all online dealers and, even better, they also offer weekly best-picks for each model.

So, after confirming their reliability with ResellerRatings, I went with the weekly best-pick, MacConnection. For the standard $2600 price, MacConnection offered the 15” 1.25 GHz PowerBook with a carrying case and an upgrade to 1 GB RAM. Not that the carrying case would be that useful, but the RAM upgrade was rather tempting (especially since upgrading the RAM on my own would mean having the two stock 256 MB chips go to waste).

So, I ordered the PowerBook from MacConnection, along with a spare battery and a travel-sized mouse. Thanks to 2-Day Air, it should be here shortly :).

Now, the hard part is to find all of my usual applications (web browser, word processor, ftp client) all over again — keep in mind that my Mac exposure has largely been limited to testing websites on a Mac far off in one corner of the office. I’ve done some research ahead of time and I’ve filled some of the slots, but I could use some help on a few of these. And, though I have no qualms about paying for software when there’s no free app available, I consider that a last resort. So, if there’s a freeware app out there, I’ll give it preference.

• Web Browser: Mozilla Firebird. That was easy ;). I already use Mozilla Suite at home and Mozilla Firebird at work, so this should be a smooth transition.

• Mail Client: Mozilla Thunderbird. This was virtually a shoo-in as well, but then I got to thinking, “What about Apple Mail?” Not having used Apple Mail, I dunno if it’s any good. To its credit, it has Bayesian filtering (like Thunderbird), but I don't know much more about it. My one concern with Apple Mail is that, unlike Thunderbird, Apple Mail’s updates are largely tied to OS-updates and non-free (AFAIK).

• Word Processor: OpenOffice.org. I already use OpenOffice.org exclusively on my PC, so this should have been a slam-dunk. But, OpenOffice.org still seems a bit clunky on OSX, from what I hear. Thankfully, Panther now includes an X Server by default (which OOo/Mac requires).

• AIM/ICQ: Fire. Sure, I could try to install the various vendors’ client apps, but it just seems to much easier to have them all in one window. Besides, it’s GPLed — what’s not to like?

• IRC: This took a bit of hunting, but it looks like the XChat port for OSX may be my best bet. Sure, Fire may come with IRC support, but I’d rather have the capabilities of a full-blown IRC client for when I'm actually using IRC.

• FTP: This was a bit of a toss-up. Fugu looks good so far; it supports SFTP and SCP and it’s even won an Apple Design Award for Best Mac OS X Use of Open Source. However, I seem to recall reading somewhere that it might not support normal ftp (yeah, that does sound a bit absurd, but I can’t discount that).

  As a backup, I’m also considering Cyberduck. It’s also open source and it definitely supports regular FTP, but it just doesn’t seem as full-featured as Fugu.

• Text Editor: This is probably the hardest one. Really, all I’m really looking for is a tabbed interface, syntax highlighting for HTML/CSS, and multiple undo-redo. And, SubEthaEdit (formerly called Hydra) appears to be in the lead. Yeah, I don't see a tabbed interface in the screenshots, but it looks like the best option at the moment. And, considering the free editors out there, I’m not going to spend the money on BBEdit ;).

• Virtual Desktops: CodeTek fills this slot at the moment. Yeah, it’s $30, but there’s virtually no competition in this area. And, I haven’t forgotten about Expose, but it’s known to act up with Mozilla anyway (yeah, it’s Mozilla’s fault).

  In fairness, there’s also Space.app which is an open source virtual desktop manager. Considering that it's free, I won’t hesitate to try it, but my understanding is that CodeTek’s VirtualDesktop may be the more mature product.

• Remote Viewing: VNC to the rescue :). Finding an VNC server for OSX was easy enough, but the only VNC client that I’ve been able to find for OSX is the dubiously named Chicken of the VNC. Then again, maybe its name is all in jest — in which case I won’t hold it against them ;).

• Image Viewer: I already have an image editor in mind (Adobe Photoshop Elements), but sometimes I just need a small app to flip through some sliced web images. This is one category where I haven’t done much looking-around, but I’m sure there must be something. For the most part, I’d like an app which auto-sizes to the current image (instead of taking up the whole screen) and allows me to flip through files in the current directory with PgUp/PgDn (or similar).

• Clipboard Manager: On the PC, I use the excellent Yankee Clipper which auto-saves all clipboard entries. To load one, I just recall the app with a hotkey and select an entry with the arrow keys (or the mouse). I’m not sure if a similar app exists for OSX :-/.

• SMTP Server: Granted, this one is a bit obscure, but I thought I’d ask. Since my mail provider doesn’t include access to an SMTP server as part of their service, I have to provide my own (yeah, sometimes the local ISP’s SMTP can be used, but they often block mail that’s not From their domain). Postfix Enabler currently holds this spot (it simply enables the built-in SMTP capabilities in Panther’s Postfix), but it is shareware and I wouldn’t mind finding a free alternative if one exists.

Well, if you have any suggestions for some of the software above or there’re other utilities you consider a must-have, leave a comment. And, if you want to follow along with my progress, I’ll use this category (Apple) as I write more about my Mac experiences.