Adam Howitt's Blog

May 08
2009

4 hours to the unthinkable

At : 3:27 PM | Link | PC to Mac | Comments (21) | Send | 1741 Views |

I'm finally caving in and buying a mac 4 hours from now. It won't be a clean switch I know, even running bootcamp or parallels. How do I know? I ran Ubuntu linux for 2 years and came back to Windows for the sheer range of business apps targeting Windows only.

I'm moving to mac to support my iPhone development projects more easily since Mr Jobs hasn't made it possible to develop for the iPhone yet on anything else. I also don't want to be the only guy in the "I'm a PC" t-shirt at Apple's worldwide developer conference next month.

I'm prepared for ramp up but there are things I'm going to miss. If you see some app here you have converted from in your move to a Mac, let me know.

  • Beyond Compare: Singularly the most useful FTP program I've ever seen. I've tried many, many more and none have the ease of use. Fire it up, select a left side and a right side to compare and hit go. It compares single files on your PC, PC to FTP, FTP to FTP and many other configurations. It can handle folder comparisons and file comparisons. It highlights files that have changed (based on your definition of what a change is) then double click the file to see the changes and push changes line by line if need be or wholesale. This comes up often when working on client sites where someone else isn't used to working in a team. In this situation I pull in the client's changes to my machine, test my changes still work then push up a merged version. Of course some will say software can't fix a process, but it's not practical to turn around a client's development team on a dime so this is a good interim.
  • Google Chrome. I know it's coming but so is Christmas, doesn't make my transition to a mac any easier. Incognito windows are the solution to one of the biggest problems for developers - opening mulitple sessions to the same site with different user accounts and sessions. For example, all of Google's tools using a unified login don't play well if you open a new window and login to another tool with a different login. It typically affects every session you have open. Chrome's incognito lets me keep Google Analytics open in one window then login to Google AdWords MCC account with the incognito window and neither window is affected by the other. Brilliant.
  • Assorted others I haven't looked into (that may have a Mac version) include SQLYog, SQL Server Management Studio, Picasa, Flex Builder, SonicWall VPN, Microsoft Office and Google AdWords Editor.
That's it for now. If you have any suggestions for tools to try feel free to chime in. No fighting either. We can all co-exist in this world and Mac v PC interests no-one but Messrs. Gates and Jobs.

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  1. I switched 5 months ago when I started my new job, and they all use Macs. I have become a complete convert since.

    I recommend Coda as an editor. I never heard of it before, but I have really enjoyed it since switching to Mac.

    Enjoy!

    Posted By Jared : Posted At 5/8/09 4:20 PM
  2. I just made the switch too (to jump into iphone app development). No replacement yet for BeyondCompare. As far as Chrome, I blogged my thoughts on "Chrom-ifying Firefox" here:

    http://charlie.griefer.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/4/19/Chromifying-Firefox

    Posted By Charlie Griefer : Posted At 5/8/09 4:23 PM
  3. I covered many topics on my blog last year...

    http://www.iotashan.com/index.php/tag/moving-to-mac/

    Specific answers to your questions:

    Use Safari to tide you over till Chrome is released.

    Navicat is a good replacement for SQLYog, and they're coming out with a SQL Server version "soon". Picasa, Flexbuilder and Office are available for the mac.

    I recommend reading up on Lifehacker's posts on Mac programs, as there are many lovely little utilities that make things a dream to do:

    http://lifehacker.com/tag/mac-os-x/

    Posted By Shannon Hicks : Posted At 5/8/09 4:32 PM
  4. I have used Beyond Compare extensively, and while there is no suitable replacement for Mac, I continue to run in inside my VM, for which I use VMWare Fusion with an XP instance. I always have XP running (have MSSQL on it), so it's not a big deal to switch over to it when I need Beyond Compare.

    That being said, I use DiffMerge for simpler comparisons, and since it integrates well with Versions, the "best" SVN app for Mac.

    R.e. incognito mode, I do the same with IE or FF in the VM while maintaining a different session in my Mac.

    As for your assorted others, you can get Aqua Data Studio which is very nice, you'll install the SQL mgmt tools in your VM. Much of Picasa is built into OSX's Preview app, and the rest is doable using Picnik, so I don't use Picasa any more. I've read that Google is working on a Mac version of it thought.

    Posted By Nat Papovich : Posted At 5/8/09 4:37 PM
  5. Thanks for the tips all. I know there is lots to love but lots to miss.

    Posted By Adam Howitt : Posted At 5/8/09 4:45 PM
  6. Oh this is going to be fun, Mr. Howitt. There's a lot for me to show you. On the Beyond Compare tip, I can't personally attest to a comparison, but Changes.app looks promising:

    http://changesapp.com/

    Posted By Jeff Kenny : Posted At 5/8/09 5:37 PM
  7. well i sent you a list of things but your system says its spam

    Posted By dave : Posted At 5/8/09 6:04 PM
  8. I'm using BeyondCompare on my Mac via CrossOver. Only program I use CrossOver for, but regardless, worth the price.

    FlexBuilder works just fine on a Mac.

    Posted By JesterXL : Posted At 5/8/09 6:15 PM
  9. Thanks Jeff, JesterXL. @dave - sorry about that - can you resend to my first and last name at gmail?

    Posted By Adam Howitt : Posted At 5/8/09 6:28 PM
  10. No Kenny, don't use Changes. It locks up for large-directory comparisons and isn't as stable overall. I've found DiffMerge to be the most stable for large numbers of files.

    Posted By Nat Papovich : Posted At 5/8/09 6:32 PM
  11. I'm on both platforms, too (PC at work, iMac at home), and I'll second the Chrome sentiments. Safari is downright painful in comparison. I'll also add that the switch to Mac keyboard shortcuts is killing me. The Mac "shortcuts" are ridiculous (Command=Control-Shift-3?! for real?) though your guitar lessons may help a bit with that. Just remember, screen capture=Major 7th.

    Best of luck.

    Posted By Catherine Savage : Posted At 5/8/09 10:43 PM
  12. For the database manager, I would recommend dbVisualizer. It's one program to manage MySQL, MSSQL, and many other databases. There is no SQLyog for Mac.

    Posted By Michael Sprague : Posted At 5/9/09 8:30 AM
  13. I made the Mac switch last year and I really have no need to go back to Windows. I know everyone's needs are different. However, if you do need to run a VM I would recommend VMWare Fusion. I use it all the time to run various Linux VMs.

    Posted By Wil Genovese : Posted At 5/9/09 1:41 PM
  14. Oh, and to run many of those windows programs like Beyond Compare on the Mac I use Crossover. It's really good and running Windows based software on the Mac. It's at http://www.codeweavers.com

    Posted By Wil Genovese : Posted At 5/9/09 1:43 PM
  15. Try Querious (still buggy) and Sequel Pro (solid an ffaasstt) for MySQL work. I prefer VMWare to Crossover (ugly, cannot run everything).

    Posted By Freelance Web Developer : Posted At 5/10/09 11:08 AM
  16. Coming to you live from my MacBook. I'm up and running with CF8 64 bit and a bunch of other stuff thanks to your excellent tips. I really appreciate all the expert advice on this.

    I've got one last question (for now) what do you use for VMs - I've used VMWare's products before but understand parallels, vmware fusion and virtualbox all compete in this space. I'm looking for tips from someone who has run recent versions of more than one of them to offer some rationale behind a choice. Thanks again! Adam

    Posted By Adam Howitt : Posted At 5/11/09 6:53 PM
  17. I think that VMWare & Parallels are pretty even. They're in a cycle of tit-for-tat updates to eek out better performance than each other.

    Personally, I prefer VMWare, because it's cross platform. I like being able to download a VMWare image from their vast library & run it on my Mac. Even if the GUI doesn't support every option out there, you can always dig into the text configuration files.

    Posted By Shannon Hicks : Posted At 5/11/09 7:13 PM
  18. Smallest comment field ever in Webkit.

    Feel free to ping me on AIM during yoru transition. I have been using a Mac for a few years now.

    Posted By Robert : Posted At 5/12/09 12:12 PM
  19. "smallest comment field ever" - agreed. Will have to fix that sometime ;-)

    Just downloading deltawalker - looks like Beyond Compare for the mac with ftp, sftp and webdav. Will report back with findings.

    Posted By Adam Howitt : Posted At 5/13/09 11:57 AM
  20. For VM software, I would recommend VirtualBox or Parellels. I just got the lastest version of VirtualBox and it works with Ubuntu 9.04 Compiz special effect with the 3d acceleration on.

    Posted By Mark T. : Posted At 5/22/09 10:29 AM
  21. DeltaWalker is now a suitable replacement for Beyond Compare. I just officially made the switch after running BC in a VM. Speaking of VMs I just moved to VirtualBox from VMware Fusion. Fusion had become so unresponsive it was unuable; VirtualBox is working great.

    Posted By Brian Jarrett : Posted At 1/25/10 3:09 PM
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