Thanks for all the tips! I've installed Adium, and excellent multi-network IM client which I'm very impressed with and will be adding Flock soon.

I'm not a Mac fanatic. I still have and use several other Windows PCs so no need for snide Mac quips. I'm just looking to expand my toolkit.

I also recommend Quicksilver (launcher/tool of many uses), Transmission (torrent program), TextWrangler (although smultron may be better.)

I use something called Scrivener for my writing projects, but it is paid software. I tend to use firefox, as I do web design and having many different browsers is very useful! Also highly recommend Cyberduck for ftp. http://www.freemacware.com/ is a great source of new programs and things. MacTheRipper is also worth checking out, as is NeoOffice/Open Office. I do like iWorks, I just haven't bothered buying a license yet ;) If you like doing 3d graphics, check out Blender - open source maya style program.

Sidenote is also handy, and there are ton of nice RSS readers out there if you aren't a fan of googlereader - Vienna, NetNewWire

http://macspecialist.org/content/art...ssential_apps/
http://freelanceswitch.com/working/3...tial-mac-apps/

Although a lot of people who assemble those sorts of lists are GTD/productivity freaks, so it can be a tad heavy on the self-organiser lists.

*dies*

Actually I find it much easier since Leopard comes with PHP 5 and Apache 2.2 built right in. No need to install anything extra. Then you just install MySQL as you would on any Unix system.

The advantage of Mac OS X is not necessarily the GUI (although I've grown so used to it I find I miss all the time saving features when I am using Vista) it is the fact that is a full Unix operating system and thus comes with all the standard Unix programming tools.

Care to elaborate. Cause I have completely screwed myself over. I can't install mySQL at all. :( I think it may be XAMPP.

Haha well i am still stuck with Windows, not sure to move yet. I still enjoy Windows!

Well you obviously need to install the developer tools for the C/C++ compilers. Then just download the MySQL source code and install it pretty much the same way as you would under Linux. There are plenty of tutorials for installing MySQL on Mac OS X on the internet.

I have developer tools. :p I have released software.

Reported Post - Problem : Mac User Detected

You just brought yourself a new mac me ponders why u downgrading your comp :)

actually there is some configurations possible for OS-X with PHP/MySQL... i work with the latest versions of each, with a full server on my Mac Pro... here is where i started my trip with MySQL: http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/ ... he is the one who coded the PHP and MySQL integration over Mac... read the infos ;)

--------------- Added [DATE]1212756916[/DATE] at [TIME]1212756916[/TIME] ---------------

Non-Reported post but it would worth it. Pointing a user who would be happy to start another flaming war between PC/Mac.... pffffft