Essential Apps for the Mac Developer

An increasing number of the web developers at iWeb now use an Apple Mac for their development work. Between us, we have come up with this list of recommended applications.

• Adium – Instant messaging application that allows you to connect to multiple networks.
• CoRD – A remote desktop client that is faster and nicer to use than Microsofts Remote Desktop Connection app.
• Cyberduck – An FTP client, but supports other protocols too.
• Firefox – Don’t forget Firebug and any other extensions you need.
• GitX – For git version control. Can also be used (via git-svn) for repositories which are still hosted on Subversion.
• Google Chrome – No need to explain this really!
• Growl – A notification tool that lets other Mac applications notify you of things.
• Homebrew – Gives you access to a lot of useful utilities via Terminal.
• iTerm2 – Terminal replacement supporting split windows.
• LibreOffice – Perfectly adequate replacement for Microsoft Office.
• NetBeans – Full IDE with php support, runs particularly well on OSX (compared to windows/linux).
• Reggy – A regular expression tester.
• Sequel Pro – A database management application.
• SVN notifier widget – If you work on a SVN controlled website, this simple widget will tell you when your checkout needs updating.
• TextWrangler – Lightweight text editor which has some nice hidden features like compare files and ‘zap gremlins’.
• Versions – A simple subversion client. Has a very nice GUI, but lacks support for branches. This is the only app in this list that isn’t free, but it does have a free trial.

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