I currently have three systems contributing daily to my sun(?)burn. My primary machine is an 2.93GHz 24″ iMac with a secondary 24″ monitor lovingly attached to it. Followed closely on the right is the most recent addition to this scary cluster: my 2.66GHz 15″ MacBook Pro, which I love almost as much as my iMac. Finally, we have an older 15″ Dell Inspiron for those PC needs. I rarely use this system and only have on my desk for easy access when someone decides to submit a support ticket regarding a problem unique to IE7.
The iMac is the center of most of my work. I typically use the following applications daily,
- Safari 4
- OS X Mail
- iTunes
- TextMate
- Versions
- FileMerge
- Cyberduck
- MAMP
- Photoshop CS3
- Adium
- TweetDeck
- Terminal
That’s it. Nothing that sticks out really. I’m actually a recent convert from PC, on which I used the lovely UltraEdit, so I was extremely worried about taking on a new editor. Fortunately, TextMate filled UltraEdit’s big shoes and has been quite a joy to work with after installing some plugins. It still lacks project searching (and project management, in general), so much that the Find in Project tool is almost completely useless. Maybe not completely useless, but definitely on the annoyingly useless side. You get the point.
The applications are largely split up into two categories: development and communications. I work from home, so communication between myself and others is key. OS X Mail, Adium, and even TweetDeck covers that nicely. Then you have the development aspect which of course encompasses everything from TextMate to Terminal. iTunes is also thrown in there, but how can you even begin to program without a little noise in the background?
The MacBook has similar programs, with a few additional browsers for testing. I don’t like cluttering up my iMac with applications I rarely use, so they usually get pushed off to the MacBook. I take it with me when I have to go in to work for meetings or presentations. It’s my latest toy and the novelty still hasn’t worn off :-)