

Power user replacements for OS X default apps - subelsky
http://www.subelsky.com/2011/01/ive-noticed-that-longer-i-use-os-x-more.html

======
generalk
I love my Macbook Pro -- best laptop I've ever owned. I even love OS X in
that, for the most part, everything works without issue. But articles like
this make me wonder why I shouldn't switch back to Ubuntu.

TFA mentions the following software that runs just fine on Linux:

    
    
      * Chrome
      * Dropbox
      * Google Services
      * Crashplan
      * LastPass
      * Google Calendar 
      * VLC
                  

Some software doesn't run under Linux but has perfectly capable replacements:

    
    
      * Adium: Pidgin
      * TextWrangler/BBEdit: GEdit, Emacs, Vim
      * Mail.app replacements: GMail's web interface 
      replaced these long ago.
      * Evernote: Can be used via the limited web 
      interface.   
                                                          

Some of them are even commercial replacements for features that most Linux
desktops have had forever:

    
    
      * iStat Menus (which I bought)
      * Witch window switcher
      * HyperSpaces

~~~
larrik
I think Ubuntu is great, and making iPhone apps under OS X isn't changing my
mind.

Renaming a file on OS X requires you to single-click the file name, wait a
second, and then change the file name. If you have to rename a bunch of files,
that's a ton slower than Ubuntu or Windows. (If anyone is going to suggest
dropping to the command line, I'd answer that's not a very OS X solution)

OS X uses THREE keyboard modifiers? REALLY? And they aren't even named? I have
to actually look at my keyboard and think about what it what. Nevermind if I'm
using a Windows keyboard on a Mac Mini or something...

Right clicking is inconsistent, and the context menus rarely have what I want
(like, oh, renaming a file?). This is probably why they have 3 keyboard
modifier buttons.

Safari is not nearly as good as Chrome is.

Multiple desktops is trivial on Ubuntu. In fact, it's preinstalled that way.

(There's lots more stuff that irritates me, but I'm actually on Ubuntu right
now, and it has allowed me to forget such nonsense)

I'm not saying Ubuntu doesn't have issues, but given that Ubuntu is free (in
both senses) and runs on hardware I can select piece by piece and get a much
better machine for a fraction of the cost... I seriously doubt I will ever
have more than a single development Mac.

~~~
masklinn
> Renaming a file on OS X requires you to single-click the file name, wait a
> second, and then change the file name. If you have to rename a bunch of
> files, that's a ton slower than Ubuntu or Windows. (If anyone is going to
> suggest dropping to the command line, I'd answer that's not a very OS X
> solution)

Select file, hit return, rename, hit return. Go to next file. Are you going to
say Windows's F2 dance is faster?

> OS X uses THREE keyboard modifiers? REALLY?

No, 4. Is that supposed to be news? Windows also uses 4 keyboard modifiers,
and Gnome uses at least 3.

> And they aren't even named?

Shift, control, option (alt), command.

> and the context menus rarely have what I want (like, oh, renaming a file?).

Ever considered opening the Get Info dialog? No? Thought not.

> Multiple desktops is trivial on Ubuntu. In fact, it's preinstalled that way.

So is it on OSX. I'd even say it's more trivial, as you can switch to an
application living on a different desktop, it will just switch to the right
desktop. Not so in Ubuntu.

~~~
larrik
1) I didn't know you can rename a file like that. I assumed that pressing
Return would, you know, open the file. How do you open the file from the
keyboard, then?

I also don't know what the Windows F2 dance is. I can right click and choose
Rename from the context menu, or right click and press M, or press the stupid
context key on the keyboard and then press M.

2) I didn't count Shift. Oh well. Windows doesn't use that Windows key in the
same way. There are no context menus with that key as it's listed shortcut,
and I've never seen an application that uses it.

3) Control and command are WAY too similar, especially since historically the
F keys are also called "command keys". Option/Alt has two names? And what is
what that weird symbol that represents it in the context menus?

4) Get Info? Sure. It's a Properties window. Wow.

5) I use AWN on Ubuntu, so I didn't realize Gnome doesn't take you to the
right desktop when you click on a window in their task manager. In fact, I
still only have your word for it.

Besides, I didn't say OS X was bad, I just said it wasn't good enough to
justify me switching to it for triple the cost.

~~~
masklinn
> 1) I didn't know you can rename a file like that.

Yet you had no problem whining about how it's impossible to rename files on
OSX. Great.

> I assumed that pressing Return would, you know, open the file.

You assumed wrong. You should stop assuming stuff like that.

> How do you open the file from the keyboard, then?

Command-O or Command-down.

> I also don't know what the Windows F2 dance is. I can right click and choose
> Rename from the context menu, or right click and press M, or press the
> stupid context key on the keyboard and then press M.

So... you like making your life harder than it should be?

> Control and command are WAY too similar,

Seriously?

> Option/Alt has two names?

Its name is "Option Key", but in non-OSX software it maps to Alt. As a result,
the key is stenciled with both "alt" and the option key symbol.

> And what is what that weird symbol that represents it in the context menus?

The unicode character U+2325 called "OPTION KEY". Seems fitting isn't it?

> I didn't count Shift.

You didn't count AltGr either.

> Oh well. Windows doesn't use that Windows key in the same way.

True, Windows generally does not provide many ways to reach variants of
existing actions. Which is the point of the Option key (that and AltGr's:
provide supplementary character mappings on the keyboard).

> Get Info? Sure. It's a Properties window.

And one of the properties of a file is its name.

> Besides, I didn't say OS X was bad

Oh come on, your whole comment screamed it.

------
siddhant
You _must_ go through this list -
[http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/82/os-x-
application...](http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/82/os-x-applications-
you-cant-live-without)

Infact, most of the questions on
<http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=votes> are worth checking out.
It'll make life a _lot_ easier (at least it made mine).

The whole eco system of applications on the Mac makes me think that switching
over from an ArchLinux box to a Macbook Pro was one of the best decisions I
ever made.

~~~
subelsky
this is an awesome list, thanks for sharing it! I'm poring through it now.

------
stuhacking
Is a _power user_ now someone who needs all their documents synced using some
cloud service?

Aside from using Chrome, Quicksilver and Emacs, I find most of the other
listed OS X defaults to be perfectly adequate for my needs. I'll handle my own
replication and backups, thanks.

~~~
sudont
Furthermore, what’s with the recent hate on application-level switching? Just
about ever “power user” I see nowadays wants Windows 98-esque window
switching, despite the fact that the mac window manager is built around an
application > window hierarchy.

Personally, it’s one of the most aggravating features I have to deal with on
XP, so I can’t understand why anyone would want it on their mac.

~~~
sross
Not answering for everyone, of course, but I find the mac model breaks down
when I only want to pull a single window of an app to the foreground.

Envisage, if you will, this scenario. I have multiple terminal windows open in
the background connected to various services and my current focus is on my
fullscreen IDE of choice. Now my IDE has various pieces of information on it
and, given that my short term memory isn't what it once was, I would like to
always be able refer to it. So I switch to Terminal and ALL the Terminal
windows are pulled above the IDE window, often obscuring the piece of
information I wanted to reference.

It's not that the 98-esque model is necessarily superior, it's rather that
it's surprising when windows you haven't requested to see are pulled into the
foreground. Now this may be due to me having used `window-centric` switching
for many years but after 3 years of owning a mac I still find this behaviour
frustrating.

~~~
weeksie
CMD-` switches between application windows. That might help a bit, I use it
constantly; so constantly in fact, that I remapped buffer switching in emacs
to that command.

~~~
ot
CMD-` doesn't solve the problem, if you are in an application and you want to
bring up a window from another application you still have to use CMD-TAB. But
this brings up _all_ the windows from the other application.

~~~
msbarnett
Yeah, the best solution here is definitely exposé. Invoke, select just the
window you want via arrow keys or beginning to type the window's title, hit
return, and only that window comes forward.

------
pflats
Rather than replace Quicktime with VLC, you're much better off, in my opinion,
installing the Perian plugin. It runs almost everything:
<http://www.perian.org>

I suppose I've also technically "replaced" my dock and Spotlight search with
Launchbar, which gives you, essentially, an Apple-fied version of a command
line. Hitting a shortcut (cmd-space for me) opens the app, and it auto-
completes application names and common OS tasks for you. Quicksilver is an
FOSS alternative that does much of the same.

Launchbar: <http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/>

Quicksilver: <https://github.com/tiennou/blacktree-alchemy>

Finally, not a replacement, but anyone who runs Boot Camp or anything similar
owes it to themselves to install NTFS-3G, to read and write to NTFS
partitions: <http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/>

edit: Fixed a bit of formatting. Also, saw a few of these were already
mentioned (at least in passing) while I was putting my reply together. Sorry
about the repeats.

~~~
JonnieCache
_> NTFS-3G_

Snow leopard has native NTFS write now, you just have to enable it.

[http://tool-box.info/blog/archives/1193-On-NTFS-readwrite-su...](http://tool-
box.info/blog/archives/1193-On-NTFS-readwrite-support-in-Snow-Leopard.html)

------
program
A Power User that doesn't replace "Archive Utility.app" with The Unarchiver?

<http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html>

~~~
albemuth
Hmm why? I've never downloaded a zip it couldn't handle. And for creating, tar
from the command line.

~~~
callahad
Then you've never downloaded a password-protected Zip file, a RAR file, a
7-Zip file, or an LZMA / XZ file. Nor have you needed to unpack a CAB, RPM, or
XAR archive.

~~~
pak
I've used 7zX for those rare cases, which is ugly but works. ...In case people
don't want to replace the default Archive Utility.

------
ams6110
I use: Emacs for editing/coding, mail, chat, task management, and calendar;
Terminal for file system manipulation; Safari for browsing, though Chrome is
nice too; Preview seems fine for PDFs.

Not much else on a daily basis.

~~~
docgnome
Sounds like you don't really need OS X then. Unless you're particularly
attached to Safari. I'm roughly the same myself. Only with urxvt and conkeror
instead of Terminal and Safari.

~~~
ams6110
80% of the time I don't. Now that Chrome is here I don't really even feel
strongly about Safari. But I just love the MacBook. And the other stock apps
and utilities, plus what's available either free or commercially, just rounds
out the package for times when I need functionality outside my normal needs.

------
woid
what about TotalFinder? (warning: I'm the author, but I would still vote for
it :-) <http://totalfinder.binaryage.com>

~~~
stevefink
Going to trial it now and from the looks of it, I'll also probably be throwing
cash at you very shortly. One pain point I find with Finder is that by default
when you search, it doesn't search the local folder. Kills usability for me on
multiple levels when I have to resort to Terminal.app + find(1).

~~~
rkudeshi
Are you using Snow Leopard? That option was added in 10.6.

Go to Finder>Preferences>Advanced and you'll find it at the bottom of the
window.

------
JonnieCache
Anyone looking for a simple, (open!) osx music player that just has a playlist
you can drop folders onto and nothing else, check out Cog.

<http://cogx.org/>

Also, Path Finder, a finder replacement in the vain of Directory Opus on
windows. It has tabs, split windows, everything you would expect. It also has
command line integration and a built in hex viewer/edtior. The only thing I've
ever wanted for is regex-based filtering of listings, but I can cope without
that.

<http://cocoatech.com/>

I would go mad without this. Finder sucks.

EDIT: And how could I forget springy, an archiver that lets me double click on
archives and actually lets me browse them in their own windows and selectively
extract from them, rather than instantaneously spurting files everywhere like
every other OS X archiver seems to do.

<http://www.springyarchiver.com/>

It took me over a year just to find an OS X archiver that behaves like ones on
other platforms. It seems mac devs are a little obsessed by mimicking the
default apple workflow.

~~~
draebek
> Anyone looking for a simple, (open!) osx music player that just has a
> playlist you can drop folders onto and nothing else, check out Cog.

Cog is nice but unfortunately it doesn't support ReplayGain. (Ditto Vox.) I
actually use VLC as an MP3 player for this reason.

~~~
JonnieCache
If you require replaygain try Play.

<http://sbooth.org/Play/>

It's website is bizarrely similar to Cog's one, they must have been a
template. The apps are also very similar, but Play has a few extra features
and consequently a busier interface. It does support replaygain however.

Also for anyone checking out cog, go to the preferences and set the auto-
updater to get nightly builds, the stable builds dont really get updated. The
nighties are just as stable, but the interface controls are more cleanly laid
out.

------
tialys
Gmail only (for the time being), but Sparrow has become my new mail app of
choice.

<http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/>

~~~
jaxonrice
In a similar vein, I truly love the way Postbox handles my multiple email
accounts. <http://www.postbox-inc.com/>

------
pak
The best "power replacement" for anything on OS X is not an app, it's a piece
of hardware: an SSD. If you still have a hard drive, go get an SSD replacement
--it makes a world of difference for OS X performance. I couldn't imagine
going back. I see some people in this thread talking about how this or that is
slow and I can bet that for most of them, a $200 SSD would change everything.

------
ams6110
I don't find that VLC is a good replacement for Quicktime Player. I often have
problems with VLC playing audio streams (frequent rebuffering, often freezing
up completely), whereas Quicktime will play the same stream faultlessly.

Edit: I do use VLC though, it's great for other things, just doesn't replace
Quicktime for me.

------
vault_
If you think that VLC is a good Quicktime alternative you should try out
mplayer. There's an awesome Mac gui for it called MPlayer OSX Extended
(<http://www.mplayerosx.ch/>). It's a lot more streamlined and will play at
least everything that VLC does.

------
oscardelben
I think it comes down to personal preferences.

I've tried several times to switch to Chrome, but for me Safari is better. For
example I like how I can access bookmarks from hotkeys.

Same for textedit and terminal, I can't think of any reason to switch, and
I've tried several alternatives.

------
mcmatterson
I maintain a list of the apps I use (and a list of must _not_ use apps) at

<http://www.longbeard.org/static/macapps.html>

------
speleding
Perhaps I'm not enough of a power user since I'm quite happy with most OS X
apps, but there are two replacements I can recommend:

\- Spell catcher to replace the built in spell checking

\- Divvy for window management

~~~
earl
+1 for divvy: <http://www.mizage.com/divvy/>

Watch the video, but basically, you can define predetermined window positions
and sizes, bind those to keys, and use hot keys to snap windows to the
predetermined sizes. Or a size selector available on the fly.

This is particularly nice if you travel with your laptop and don't like the
resizing behavior for windows that are on an external monitor when you unplug
it.

------
stcredzero
For a text editor on OS X, look at SubEthaEdit. It looks and behaves a lot
like XCode, probably because it uses the same Cocoa libraries as XCode. It has
code folding that works well, even in Python, and you can even have selections
processed by by external commands.

If you need to open a ridiculously large log file, there's also gedit. On OS
X, it looks ugly and awkward, but it gets the job done on 500 megabyte files
where even AquaMacs and TextMate fall down.

~~~
astrange
TextMate falls down on all sorts of things - it's remarkably slow. The go-to
editor for very large files is BBEdit.

------
m0shen
Some additions:

    
    
      Xee                  - A fast image viewer
      The Unarchiver       - Extracts everything, with some nice options
      MPlayer OSX Extended - Another great media player
      KeePassX             - Open source password manager
      Burn                 - Alternative image/file burning utility
      Disk Inventory X     - Disk space visualization
      muCommander          - An advanced file manager

------
kayoone
Every few month i get the feeling of trying out linux again on some machine.
Had a MSI Wind U100 netbook lying around and got the latest Ubuntu 10.10
netbook edition because i thought the netbook is pretty old now and stuff
should work with the latest ubuntu. It didnt.

While ubuntu was running fine i had problems with the wifi waking up after
hibernate/sleep which always forced me to reboot to use wifi again. Googling
revealed some people having similar issues, stating that it worked fine under
10.04 but now unter 10.10 it doesnt. I thought minor releases were ment to fix
bugs, not create new ones. People on the ubuntu forums suggested trying the
windows wifi drivers through ndiswra...nope, i wont start fiddling with stuff
like that for hours on end again to get basic functionality working. Power
management also was worse than on windows... i didnt even try to get bluetooth
to work and installed win xp sp3 on it... Sorry Linux, it didnt work out this
year, again :/

------
exasecond
One really useful program that replaces various things in MacOS X is Keyboard
Maestro (<http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/>). It's a way of getting your
keyboard to control more things on your system - from triggering abbreviations
that expand into words or phrases, to starting or controlling other
applications. These abbreviations can run shell scripts too. It's considerably
better than Automator, I think.

I particularly like and use the web triggers (which let you access the KM
engine using the built-in web server) and the iPhone app (free) which you can
use to control your Mac from other locations. It makes a killer remote control
too...

------
ams6110
Some other keyboard shortcuts:

In Safari, alt-tab switches focus to the next control; tab normally just
switches to the next input element.

In Expose (F3), cmd-tab cycles apps; limits the Expose view to that app's
windows. Arrows select a window, <return> then brings that window in focus.

In Expose, cmd-` cycles apps, limits Expose view to that app. Similar to above
but you don't see the App icons overlay on the screen; they are instead
highlighted on the Dock and the switching happens immediately.

To activate Spaces view, F8 by default but that launches iTunes on my MacBook.
I remapped mine to F6 in the System Preferences. Then arrow keys select a
space.

------
ludwigvan
Two small additions:

    
    
        * cdto: "Fast mini application that opens a Terminal.app window cd'd to the front most finder window." 
        * fastscripts: "Powerful script management utility." You can assign shortcuts to your scripts. 
    

<http://code.google.com/p/cdto/> <http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/>

------
h5n1
I'm surprised that the author replaced iTunes with Pandora when Grooveshark is
so much more versatile. Plus, it can be made into a damn good Fluid app.
Additionally, some of his "replacements" are just extensions to normal
processes; Hyperspaces runs within spaces, and Witch runs within Expose. On
that note, though, there's a QuickTime add-on called Perian that makes the
program much more versatile, and can in many cases re-replace VLC.

~~~
rjvir
Pandora's recommendation engine is far better than Grooveshark's.

~~~
alsocasey
But Grooveshark is available in countries where Pandora (sadly) isn't.

------
iqster
Just wait for the network connection to go down.

------
xuki
No one here uses SizeUp and JumpCut? They're pretty awesome.

<http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/>

<http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/>

------
kevingessner
Funny to see this today, since I just had my first app accepted to the Mac App
store. It's called Twitch, and it's a launcher designed for power users and
keyboard junkies: <http://twitchapp.com>

------
damoncali
Not really a replacement, but if you're on OSX and are not using Fake
(<http://fakeapp.com>) for your in-browser testing, you're missing out.

------
octopus
A nice replacement for the Mail program is Thunderbird, if you use this you
can move your emails on any modern OS by just copying a folder.

VLC for movies and dvd's.

------
imperialWicket
I prefer KeepassX for password management. It's a little more hands off than
its more browser-oriented counterparts. It's also free, open source, and
cross-platform.

------
soolwan
ShiftIt is great for positioning windows, a la Compiz Grid.
(<http://code.google.com/p/shiftit/>)

------
tommypalm
Launchbar over Alfred as a replacement for Spotlight. I just prefer the 30 day
trial model over limited free usage and then pay for 'power user' features.

------
paul9290
iTunes overall is the worst experience on a MAC. For any user who used Windows
for a few years and jumps onto a MAC I would bet most find it frustrating! It
takes so long to load up and then to transfer music to then listen ... uggh!
Thus like the author of this article I use YouTube, Vevo and Pandora to listen
to my music collection; either on my desktop or thru my iPhone.

~~~
ugh
iTunes is pretty snappy for me. (Except for the Store which for whatever
reasons takes forever to load.)

~~~
paul9290
Connecting your iphone or ipod touch is snappy? I have two mac Minis an ipod
touch and iphone, when I connect either of them to either Mac Mini(one of 2007
and one from 2010) it takes forever for it to sync, which then I can finally
transfer digital files onto said device.

Now when I do the same thing on windows (transfer digital files), it's plug in
device and drag and drop and your done.

Overall Im a MAC person now, but far as I know there is no easy way to drag
and drop digital files onto any Apple device where it's as easy as Windows.

~~~
ugh
I honestly don’t know how long it takes to sync my iPod touch. I just plug it
in to charge and leave it plugged in.

~~~
paul9290
Umm that is my point. When you want to quickly drag and drop files onto an
iphone or ipod it has to sync first which for me and sounds as you takes
awhile! You cant plug in play and immediately drag and drop.

I guess everyone is use to waiting and waiting for it to sync then transfer
their media files as my initial post is getting downvoted?

~~~
chrisbolt
If you don't want to sync, why not choose Manually Manage Music?

~~~
paul9290
I didnt have to make any settings change when I plugged in any non apple
device into various PCs. By default it was simple and what I was used to when
transferring music.

------
gaiusparx
Just realized I'm not a power user if I use Safari. Damn Apple.

~~~
pistoriusp
Me too for: Safari, Dashboard Widgets, Spaces, iTunes, Terminal, Preview,
iChat and Keychain.

Everything is very standard here in my world.

------
leon_
The most power user replacement would be to replace the OS X window manager
with a custom tiling manager.

~~~
spicyj
I don't think you can do that; please correct me if I'm wrong.

~~~
docgnome
I _think_ you might be able to run a tilling wm in X but that wouldn't exactly
replace the wm. I sorta hate the OS X wm which is a major impetus for me to
run debian where I can actually chose what wm to use instead of having to obey
the almighty menu bar.

~~~
wahnfrieden
You can run stuff like XMonad, but it only works with things run inside X11,
yeah. So there's pretty much no point to it -- might as well install Debian.

------
tkahn6
Chrome keep tabs in separate _processes_ (not threads).

~~~
sigzero
With Safari I can right click and copy a image and paste it into another
app...every time I try that with Chrome the paste is broken. Fixed maybe?

~~~
roxstar
I just tried it on linux and it works :/

------
hexley
"Power user" replacements for OS X default apps more like, very questionable
list that is...

------
timtadh
I am sorry but this was a pointless article. You can down vote me now.

