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The 30 day OSX challenge

Posted June 9th, 2010 in OSX

With the rise in popularity of iPhone and iPad devices, and the rebuild we are shortly going to do with the Personalised Plates website, I have come to the conclusion that I need a Mac to be able to test for iPhone/iPad using the simulator which comes with the iPhone SDK. I currently use Windows 7 and the simulator/SDK is Mac only. So time to take the plunge and get a Mac.

Buying a Mac Mini

I don't want to spend too much money and did quite seriously consider just buying an iPod Touch but the issue with that is then I can only test one version of the OS (as newer versions are released) and can't test on iPad screen resolutions. With the SDK and iPhone simulator I shouldn't have these issues.

So I have decided to buy a Mac Mini because the specs still seem to be pretty good (better than my now aging home built machine) and the price is reasonably low.

The 30 day OSX challenge

I have to admit that I've never liked the Mac interface - neither classic nor OSX - but then it's not something I've ever worked with on a day to day basis - just every now and then.

On the flipside, my setup is kind of the wrong way around because I'd like to be able to test the OSX stuff and you can virtualise Windows on OSX but not the other way around (well, you can virtualise OSX on Windows but it's not legal and it didn't work very well when I tried it as an experiment some time back).

So I have decided to take a 30 day OSX challenge. When I buy my Mac Mini I shall use it exclusively as my main desktop (I have a Windows laptop in the kitchen I also use to read email and consult the oracle outside of work hours and that's not going to change) for 30 days and then decided whether or not to move to OSX fulltime for my desktop.

The rest of this post looks at the software I use on a day to day basis and whether I can use it on OSX and what the equivilents are if not.

At the end of the 30 days I will post again with my findings...

A bit about me

I am a web developer fluent in PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, Linux, Apache. These days I mostly only work for www.plates.co.nz and motorhomeroadtrip.com and the rest of the time is spent on my own projects and partnerships which include this blog, www.healthy.co.nz and www.runningcalendar.co.nz.

I only work a full day on Mondays and Fridays and the other three days I squeeze some amount of work in (mainly writing content) inbetween looking after my 7 month old and 5 year old sons.

Software

Here's a list of the software I use on a day to day basis for both work and pleasure.

Web browsers

Firefox
Chrome
Internet Explorer
Safari
Opera

Yes, I really do use all of those browsers. I use Chrome for everyday browsing and usually use Firefox instead when editing content because the HTML editors don't usually work quite so well in Chrome (although this is improving). The others are for testing layouts etc.

No real issues here. With the exception of IE there are Mac editions for all of these but then I to test in the native operating system so will be checking IE/Firefox/Chrome on Windows anyway in virtual machines. This isn't really any different from what I'd normally do. See the Virtualisation section below for more details.

Email

I use GMail/Google Apps in Chrome. I will continue to do so on OSX.

Newsreader

I use Google Reader in Chrome. I will continue to do so on OSX.

Twitter Client

Yes, you can use it in a web browser, but I also use both TweetDeck and HootSuite. No issues with either because TweetDeck is available in Windows, Mac and Linux variants and HootSuite is a web browser based application.

PHP Coding

I currently use Nusphere PhpED. This only comes for Windows so I'll either need to run it via a Virtual Machine or look at other options. There is always Eclipse (but I've never liked it) or Zend Studio (which runs on Windows/Linux/Mac) but I gave up on Zend Studio when it became based on Eclipse and never seemed to work for me. Also, I see now that it's really expensive.

Skype

Yes, there's an OSX version.

VPN Access

I occasionally have to log into a VPN which uses Juniper Remote Access (and my wife has to on the mornings three days a week). It looks like there's an OSX version of the remote access software so this may work. However, there are a lot of rules for logging into the VPN which include anti-virus / firewall software so it may not work. Worst case is that we continue to use the Windows desktop (or the laptop) for this.

Remote Desktop Client

In order to connect to some of the terminal services servers on the above VPN network we need to use a remote desktop client. There appears to be a client from Microsoft for OSX to do this (and I would be surprised if there aren't other options available). Assuming of course we can connect to the network in the first place...

Garmin ANT

I use a Garmin GPS watch when I run and it has a USB based wireless connection which uploads the run data to the online Garmin Connect service. There appears to be an OSX version so this is all good.

Printing to PDF

I use BullZip PDF Printer to print anything to a PDF document. From a quick look at the OSX help online this looks to be something that is built into the operating system so all good.

Accounting Software

My accounting software is an online service, so no issues there because it's all done via a web browser.

Printers and associated software

I have a Canon LBP5000 color laser printer and Canon IP4300 photo printer. There drivers for both of these for OSX and also for the CD label printing software and photo printing software.

PS3 Media Server

I use the PS3 Media Server to stream xvid files, photos etc from my PC to my PS3. There is a version for OSX so again, no issues here.

Adobe Photoshop

Yes, there's an OSX version! But I would need to buy it... I will run in VM for now but see my notes in the conclusion.

Microsoft Office

As with Photoshop, although in this case it's a lot cheaper. If I continue to use OSX as my primary desktop after the 30 day experiment I will probably buy the home/student version and use the Windows desktop if I need to use Access (pretty much never ever). Most of my stuff is done in Google Docs anyway, and I use Office mostly for sending/receiving files from clients.

For the trial if I need to open a Word/Excel document I can probably do so in Google Docs or maybe I'll install OpenOffice.

Games

I don't really play anything any more so this isn't an issue. Hey, I never have time!

PDF Reader

On Windows I use Foxit Reader instead of the bloatware that is Adobe Acrobat Reader. Naturally in OSX a PDF reader is built in.

SVN Client

I use TortoiseSVN which is Windows only. So time to look for an OSX SVN client. Suggestions are welcome.

CVS Client

As above, although I very rarely need to connect to a CSV server these days.

Virtualisation

I currently use VMWare Server / Workstation so the natural step is to use VMWare Fusion as I can simply copy the VMs over to the Mac Mini. I'll use the trial version of VMWare Fusion and will upgrade if decide to continue using OSX as the main desktop.

My LAMP stack runs on a Debian VM, so again all I need to do is copy it across to the Mac Mini and run it under VMWare Fusion and there's no further setup required to get it running.

This VM also has Samba running and all my project and customer files are served from it as well. This incredibly simplifies my setup when I need to reinstall/move the host operating system from one machine to another (which I've done 3 times in the last 18 months - and about to do again) and all my files and dev sites can be up and running as soon as I have VMWare installed.

SSH

I use PuTTY on Windows but SSH is built in on a Mac.

PuTTY SSH Authentication Agent for CVS

I need this to connect to the CVS server I occasionally need to log into. I'm sure I can figure out how to log in with whatever CVS client I use. Worst case is I have to use the Windows box when I need to do this work.

uTorrent

Yes. There's a beta version for OSX.

S/FTP Client

Yes, Filezilla is Windows/Linux/OSX.

Diff

KDiff3 is available for multiple platforms including OSX

Notepad like app

Whatever comes with OSX? I use Notepad++ but no OSX version.

Music Player

I've never really liked iTunes that much (I use Winamp currently) but it's not like I listen to music on the computer all that much anyway - I mostly listen to the radio. I currently have my radio plugged into a line in on my Windows box and the radio plays back through the computer speakers, with volume levels controlled by the OS. I don't know whether or not I will be able to do this with a Mac Mini but I guess I'll find out soon.

Multiple Monitors

I currently use 3 monitors. The Mac Mini supports 2 so I'll use the 3rd for if and when I need to fire up the Windows box to do something (with a bit of luck this should be never). It will be a shame to drop from 3 to 2 because it's so handy and I have a nice surround effect (see photo here).

In conclusion

The only issues really are Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Windows and Nuspehre PhpEd. I'm not prepared to pay for Photoshop for OSX* although I'm likely to get Office for OSX if I continue after 30 days. As far as PhpEd is concerned I guess I'll try out Eclipse again or maybe run it via VMWare Fusion.

* If I do decide to continue with OSX as my main desktop, I may eventually get an OSX version of Photoshop depending on how much I have to pay. At some point I'd be wanting to upgrade anyway (I'm currently using CS2); from a brief search on Google it looks like it might be possible to crossgrade from Windows to OSX which would save $$ than having to buy a full new version.