Application "Switch" Matrix

Overview

I switched to from DebianLinux to AppleOsx on my workstation in 2003 because I was tired of all my software "mostly working" and "kinda integrating". I also had an unfortunate habit of messing with things too much which eventually resulted in breaking something important and having to spend a good chunk of a day fixing my computer.

In the end OSX seemed like a good compromise. Unix underneath, polished applications on top and a solid framework in the middle to provide essentials like wifi, suspend/resume and the amazing integration which the Mac is known for. Overall I've been pretty happy, though I've been disappointed with the stability and amount of things that they broke in Tiger (OSX 10.4).

As silly as it sounds killer applications for me have been:

See also: AppleSoftware, WindowsSoftware, LinuxSoftware, CrossPlatformSoftware

Switching

Despite my contentment with OSX and the available applications, I've recently been considering switching back as UbuntuLinux seems to becoming increasingly interesting. The recent blog posts from MarkPilgrim about his reasons for switching to Linux have dredged up a lot of my own suppressed uneasiness about OSX.

In then end it comes down choosing the option which "sucks the least". Right now I think the best answer for me is still OSX, but I'll be watching (and hopefully helping) pretty closely and hope to switch back sometime soon.

Preferred Applications for Each Operating System

This is obviously hugely subjective so let me be clear about my biases. I prefer ...

Linux

Apple

Windows

Core Tools

Addressbook

??

Addressbook

??

Calendaring

Mono Calendar

iCal

Mono Calendar

Email

Thunderbird

Mail

Thunderbird

Office Suite

OpenOffice

NeoOffice / iWork (not free)

OpenOffice

Desktop Publishing

Scribus

Scribus / Swift Publisher (not free)

Scribus

Document Processor

Lyx

Lyx

Lyx

Local search

slocate

locate

Locate32

Notes

Tomboy

Stickies / Notes in Mail.app

Stickies for Windows

Web Browser

Firefox

Safari

Firefox

Communication Tools

Blog Client

??

ecto

??

Instant Messaging 1

Pidgin (none :-()

AdiumX (iChat)

Pidgin (Trillian Pro)

IRC Client

Konversation

Colloquy

Chatzilla (Firefox extension)

News Reader

Thunderbird

Unison (not free)

Thunderbird

RSS Reader 2

Liferea

Shrook

Sage (Firefox extension)

Video Conferencing

Ekiga

??

??

Media Tools

DVD Creation

KMediaFactory? k3b?

iDVD

CDburnXP

Image Manipulation

The Gimp or Krita

Preview / Seashore

The Gimp

PDF Viewer

Evince

Preview

Foxit Reader

Photo Management

F-Spot?, digiKam?

iPhoto

Picasa

Photo Printing

??

iPhoto

??

Media Player

VLC or MPlayer

Quicktime + Perian & Flip4Mac

Quicktime + Perian + Flip4Mac / VLC

Music (Rip, Play, Burn)

amaroK

iTunes

iTunes

Vector Drawing

Inkscape, xara

Inkscape

Inkscape 3 or Xara (not free)

Video Editing

Kino? PiTiVi?, Diva? MainActor?

iMovie

Microsoft MovieMaker?

Video Transcoding

FFmpeg

HandBrake

HandBrake

Linux

Apple

Windows

Utilities

Anti-Virus

ClamAV

ClamXav

avast!4 Home or AVG AntiVirus

Bittorrent

KTorrent

Transmission

uTorrent or ABC

File Transfer

??

Cyberduck

Filezilla

Firewall

??

Native support

Comodo or Netveda

GTD

??

kGTD?, EasyTask Manager?

Time&Chaos (not free)

Spam Filter

??

??

K9

Malware

Not needed

Not needed

AdAware and/or SpywareS&D and/or Windows Defender and Spyware Blaster

Micropause

Workrave

AntiRSI

Workrave

Financial Management

KMyMoney

iBank

??

P2P File Sharing

Gnucleus

mlMac

microtorrent

Tabbed Terminal

Gnome Terminal

iTerm

SecureCRT

Unix Commandline

Native support

Native support

GnuWin32

Backup software

??

??

Yadis!

Virtual Desktops

Native support

Desktop Manager

VirtualWin

Developer Tools

Project Management

Gantt Project

Gantt Project

Gant Project

HTML Editor

Amaya or Quanta Plus?

Amaya

Amaya

Perl

Native support

Native support

ActivePerl

Python

Native support

Native support

ActivePython

Text Editor

Gobby? Bluefish?

SubEthaEdit

EditPad Lite

Linux

Apple

Windows

If you have any better suggestions on applications or important categories, please let me know!

Thanks

-- AdamShand

  • 1 If you care about the A/V capabilities of iChat A/V then the client in parenthesis is the one for you.

  • 2 Personally I use Google Reader for everything, but there are advantages of client side readers.

  • 3 the graphic engine in Inkscape is still very slow

ApplicationSwitchMatrix (last edited 2009-04-06 22:14:41 by AdamShand)