Here’s a direct link to the setup file: Firefox Setup 3.0.exe. Good luck!

Apple

Headdress

Allows you to host multiple sites on your local machine. It’s basically a GUI Apache config file editor. It also plays nice with MAMP.

TextMate

My current text editor of choice for PHP, HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It also does a pretty good job of helping keep project files organized.

Disc Inventory X

This tool gives you a visual representation of how your disc space is being used.

iSquint

Convert almost any video format for iPod.

Handbreak

A DVD to MPEG-4 converter.

Unison

Usenet client

Transmit

FTP client

Adium

Chat client that allows simultaneous connections to AIM, MSN, Jabber (gtalk), Yahoo, and more.

Windows

Notepad++

A robust notepad replacement.

FastStone Screen Capture

Allows you to capture selected areas, magnify the screen, and has a built in color picker.

Fiddler

HTTP Debugging Proxy.

Royal TS

Allows you to organize multiple remote desktop connections, remembers passwords, and allows you to connect to console.

Roboform

Very robust password manager, form filler, and password generator. Works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, and Mozilla.

I forgot one (updated 11/6/2006):

UltraMon

Extends the Windows toolbar when you have multiple monitors.

Cross Platform

VLC

Media player that supports a whole bunch of formats.

Firefox w/ the Web Developer Toolbar

A web developer’s dream come true! The “Swiss Army Knife” of developer tools.

Synergy

One of my favorite tools of all time. Allows you to use a single mouse and keyboard with multiple computers and displays. It’s kind of a software KVM switch. I use my Apple keyboard on three computers…one running Apple OS 10.4, another running Windows XP, and another running Ubuntu 6.06!

Operating system not found

I rebooted again and everything was normal. Unfortunately, “Bessie” is so old that normal is very slow…especially when trying to run applications like Visual Studio. I haven’t been very concerned about updating because I mostly use my Apple iMac at home and I have a pretty cool PC at work. I’ve got my eye on one of the Intel Macs…must hold off as long as possible though.

If you are a php/mysql developer using an Apple computer I recommend the MAMP/Headress combination. These two tools have made my life much easier. They are simple installs, inexpensive (MAMP is free, Headdress is free for up to two sites…$14.99 opens up unlimited sites) and well supported. The team at Headdress has gone way above and beyond to help me debug a scenario that turned out to be my fault and make sure I was happy with their product.

Mono provides the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix.

Excited about the prospect of building .NET applications on my Apple iMac, I went straight for a link labeled “Multi-platform”, and then clicked on “Mac OS X”

I downloaded the Mac .dmg and then read the steps involved with installation and use. In addition to the framework, there were an additional six installs to perform to get the development environment up and running. The steps looked pretty scary and I decided not to jump in with both feet without a little more research.

After a little more looking around it appears that Mono is geared more towards Linux application development. I can’t tell if it would be useful for web development or not. I don’t need another framework to learn, but I think it would be cool (in a super geeky kind of way) to be able to develop .NET apps on my Mac. Is anyone else doing this?

The Solution

I found a handly little freeware app called Synergy. Synergy allows you to share one mouse and keyboard with multiple CPUs. This is no different than a hardware KVM solution, but there is not physical switch. Simply moving your mouse off the edge of the screen takes your control into the next computer! It is also multi-platform including Windows, Apple, Unix, and Linux! This means you can share your Apple keyboard and mouse with a Windows PC…or vice versa. It is also resource friendly. When clicking on the client machine I could cause the CPU% to ramp to almost 10% if I clicked repeatedly for several seconds. However, with normal usage is stayed around 5%.

The Experiment Begins

After installing Virtual PC 7 on my Apple G5 iMac running Tiger, I was able to install Windows XP Professional. I immediately liked the fact that I could open up a Windows Desktop without having to RDP to another location. Also, my entire Apple keyboard works in this environment…and I can easily toggle my full screen Windows view and my full screen Tiger view. I was able to install IIS, the .NET 2.0 Framework, and Visual Studio. I also set up a share between my Mac and Windows XP so I could share files.

Success?

So, “Did it work?”, you ask. Of course! I was able to create a new virtual directory in the default website of IIS, create a website in that directory using Visual Studio, add a new web form with some simple code, build and display in browser…all on my iMac! Finally, “How well did it work?”, you ask. Performance was less than ideal. It took about a minute to create the website in IIS. Also, anytime the screen is rendering something new or it’s having to process something more than typing text, the CPU usage shot through the roof to the high 90%. There was noticable lag during these times. I was surprised that my Mac OS continued to perform great during the CPU ramps though. I felt successful when everything worked, but to have to develop in this sluggish environment would frustrate me. I have since found another “solution” to my Apple/Visual Studio pipe dream that I will share next time.