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by Magneus 5901 days ago
If you already use Vim or Emacs, I don't think you'll be blown away by TextMate. If you're coming from a lesser editor, definitely jump on it.

If you're missing a package manager, there's MacPorts. I've heard that HomeBrew is a good alternative, but have no personal experience with it.

If you're missing GNOME Do, or any of those command launcher programs, I recommend Quicksilver.

For a better terminal emulator than Terminal.app, there are a few options out there. I use iTerm. It supports 256-color and a bunch of other goodies.

Also, DTerm lets you open a terminal in the current working directory, based on the context of the currently active program.
1 comments
Magneus 5901 days ago
Disclaimer: Personally, I only use my Mac for iPhone dev. I think it's inferior to Linux apart from media, phone sync, gaming, as you allude to.

I am underwhelmed with the interface. It's better than the Microsoft offerings, but it's not half as slick as it's touted to be. Despite what another user has said, I've found clashing keyboard shortcuts to be a problem, between XCode, spaces, etc. It's a bit of a PITA to get everything working just right.

GNOME may not be pretty, but I'd argue it's more functional.

Also, as an APT addict, it feels so clunky to go back to manual installation for everything.

I see Mac OS as the happy medium between Windows and Linux. You'll have to grab most of your software manually, and you won't be able to tweak everything to your heart's content, but you have access to a lot of commercial software, remappable shortcuts, POSIX compatibility (MacPorts), and more.

Keep in mind that if you ever have second thoughts, you can utilize VirtualBox or BootCamp to run your favorite OS, whether it's Windows, Linux, etc.

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