Posted by Vince Wadhwani on Jun 05, 2006

I moved back over to the Mac side and, while I still miss my linux desktop, I have been getting along quite fine. As expected there are a few apps that I adore on OS X while there are some that I loathe. In a different category are apps that exist on OS X but just aren't here for the Intel versions. Three in particular I want right now!

1. NeoOffice. I love Open Office. It has its quirks but overall it's a solid application and one, like firefox, without which the very talk of a linux desktop couldn't be taken seriously. At this moment, however, there's no version for Intel based Macs which means I am sticking with MS Office 2004 via Rosetta. Ugh.

2. Flip4Mac. Yes there is VLC Player which is also free, but Flip4Mac lets you actually play the WMV files inside Quicktime's Player which is something I find useful.

3. Kismac. Kismac is a wireless stumbler for OS X and you might be surprised to see it here. The constraint at the moment with this application isn't running on the Intel processor per se, but rather that the actual Airport hardware changed at the same time the processor transition happened which means that this little app doesn't quite work up to its full potential.

I hope these apps find their way over to my Mac Book Pro soon!