I have not mentioned any of the wickedly cool mac software for a while.

NeoOffice is a great port of OpenOffice to the Mac. OpenOffice has a mac port but it requires X11 and is not very intergrated. Kinda sucks. But NeoOffice is a true Mac (OS X) app and works very well.

SubEthaEdit is a great editor but I dont get to use it to the full potential since I live alone and I dont have any mac friends that we share network with. SubEthaEdit works great in Pair Programming or XP programming. That is when 2 (or technically more) people edit the same file at the same time. One is the main coder and the other is the proof reader/editor. And the two swap off back and forth.

ecto is a great blogging software. It works with several blogging APIs and you can blog to multiple blogs from a single instance of the software. They do have a windows port (that requires .net2) that you can use if you are stuck on a windows box (like at the office). The two versions have different licensing keys so you can not buy one and use both.

Parallels is great for when you need to run a single windows app on a (intel) mac. I occasionally find that I need to load and use a single windows app. damn the programmers that write windows only code! but I can use Parallels to launch windows in parallel with MacOSX and I am golden.

AdiumX is a great mac app for doing chatting. It supports just about all protocols. And it works very well. I like it better than I like TrillainPRO for windows. It supports the following protocols.

Growl + GrowlPlugins. Growl is a notification system on a Mac that is designed not to get in the way. In the windows world, various programs will give me an update (like a file is finished uploading or new mail or whatever) and the app takes over the focus of the machine. Which can be vary annoying. Growl takes the “notifications” from growl enabled apps and they dont give you updates, growl does. I know that sounds odd. I have a translucent window that pops up across the bottom of my screen (and there is various ways it can do this) to give me updates. the growl notice does not block what I am doing nor does it take focus from me. yeah!! Growl enabled apps automagically register and connect the app to growl. Some others (like Mail.app – GrowlMail, iPhoto – GrowlPhoto, etc) need plugins. Then there are some apps like unplugged give you info about the battery life and if you are plugged into the wall or not. Then things like DiggUpdate which have not really good purpose except to keep you up to date on what the latest headlines on Digg is.

Todos was an odd one for me at first. But a hot key launches a window listing all my apps that I can run and I and click on which one I want to launch. Very effective. My only dislike is that I have to use the keyboard to launch it, then use the mouse to select the new app to launch. I should be able to use the keyboard for everything.