![]() Rarely does a day go by that I am not consulting iStat menus to see what is up with my Macs, especially when I see inordinate memory usage (see Firefox above) or the CPU is taking a hit. When I return from my trip and reconnect to my network my updated files magically appear on my various desktop machines and even the VM Ware instance running Windows XP. In addition I can detach my MacBook Pro from all networks-jumping on a plane for example-and my key files are there with me. Dropbox uses the web as an intermediary, effectively eliminating that issue. Why? If you have multiple computers you know that moving files between them can sometimes be a bit of a challenge, especially if you are going across platforms (Mac -> Windows -> Linux) like I do. Like Skitch, Dropbox is a relatively new addition to my collection of free utilities though I have found it an outstanding application and service. Add in the free storage and sharing capabilities from the Skitch online service and this is something you should have at the ready if you do ANY image editing or annotating. As I wrote about it just last month, Skitch makes it so easy to capture, size, crop and annotate images that I don't feel at all compelled to fire up GIMP to edit my images. Though a relatively new addition to my collection of free utilities, Skitch has quickly risen on my list of must have, always handy utilities. Fortunately there is an extension called QuickRestart that will allow you to restart Firefox and maintain all of your existing tabs and session states. Example: As I write this Firefox has been up and running for 5 days and is currently consuming 508MB of memory. Since I rarely shut down my Mac Pro (I'll put it to sleep instead), Firefox needs a restart every 3-4 days. The only problem I have with Firefox is that it needs to be restarted occasionally because it will suck up and continue to hold memory, especially after visiting Flash intensive sites. Firefox is effectively a mini-platform for web browsing and as a developer that builds web based applications the number of add-ons to help with HTML/CSS/etc. Though I also use Safari, my default browser is Firefox. Without further adieu here is my take on them: In addition I'm not including utilities that ship with OS X. ![]() This is by no means a comprehensive list, simply the top applications that I have found to be used nearly daily. In the year since I made the switch from Windows to Mac I have examined hundreds of applications, many of them free or open source, and would like to give you a list of the applications that have made their way into my every day use. I personally love free software, especially when it adds real value to my work day.
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