NeoOffice

After trying out the OpenOffice.org development Alpha I decided to sign up to the mailing list. After a few posts I noticed that there was a lot of talk about OpenOffice.org “vs” NeoOffice. I thought it only right that I should check out NeoOffice and report it here.

NeoOffice was started by two developers that were part of the OpenOffice.org mac port. To find out more about why they started the NeoOffice project visit the FAQ page.

Before I'd even installed NeoOffice a couple of things stood out to me that seemed slightly better than the OpenOffice.org project. For one, NeoOffice is released under the full GPL license rather than the Lesser GPL, which OpenOffice.org is under. Secondly, they don't have Sun behind them telling them which way to go and they only have one platform to worry about. Also the developers seemed to have an attitude and humour that I could related to more, see the open letter to Sun Microsystems.

After installing the software, the differences are obvious. The OpenOffice.org port is clearly an alpha preview where as NeoOffice is very much a stable release, for example I wrote this blog post in NeoOffice Writer. Also the look and feel of the app is very much more 'aqua'. The icons are nice and the menus feel like os x menus.

As for features I found everything I was looking for. I'm not really a spreadsheet or presentation user so I can't really comment on those but overall, I think if you're looking for an alternative to Word at this point in time, then NeoOffice is the clear choice.

Smultron

From the website:
"Smultron is a text editor...designed to be easy and intuitive to start off with and to become more and more able as and when the user wants it."
I decided to give Smultron a try as I've been wanting to move away from Dreamweaver as my HTML editor because it's fine when my work pays for it, but for home use I can't justify the price. Smultron on the other hand is free, open source and very easy to use. Like the developer says it can become more and more able as the user wants. The advanced features I have only read about at the moment as I'm just using it for HTML and CSS editing mainly but also I've just started to learn the open source programming language Python, so I'm only really using it as a text editor with syntax highlighting.



As you can see from the screen shot, it is a very simple user interface and I found that I could get going with it almost immediately. It has a split view, which is really useful if you are doing some CSS adjustments and need to be constantly referencing the HTML file. Also I know that it can integrate with Cyberduck very easily although I haven't yet delved into that feature. It has a 'Live Find' very similar to the search in finder of 'Filter by Name' in Path Finder, which makes it easy to locate a specific div for example.
The overall look and feel of the application is quite nice with some intuitive features e.g. you can drag and drop files into the side bar to open them. I would recommend this app for sure if you do a lot of HTML editing in the Dreamweaver code view and are looking for an alternative.

For more information and to download the software go to the Smultron website.

Adium

"Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more."
I was fed up with having to have ichat and MSN messenger open at the same time and having to switch between the two windows when I was chatting to more than one person. I decided to see if there was an open source solution, and I'm very glad I did. Adium runs flawlessly, looks beautiful and keeps all of my contacts in the same place. Other great features include tabbed chat windows and some really sweet sounds for when people log in and out. I advice anyone who has had the same problem with MSN and ichat to check it out - adiumx.com

Path Finder

I thought the first post to this blog should be one of my personal favorite pieces of Open Source software for the mac, Path Finder. Basically this is a finder replacement. It has many of the features which I know some mac users have been crying out for, and some of which I know they are going to implement in the version of finder that is coming out with Leopard, e.g. tabbed finder windows. This software has so much more though as it can be customized for each individual user very easily. I had heard a lot of rave reviews of Path Finder before I actually demoed it, but once I had demoed it, I immediately purchased it (a mere US$34.95 which is about 17 pounds in the UK) and never looked back. I also found that I don't really use my dock anymore. Probably the best way to explain why I prefer Path Finder to finder is to list my personal top five features;

1. Apart from tabbed browsing, which anyone who has every used Firefox will know is a huge time saver, Path Finder has a feature called the 'Drop Stack' which is extremely useful when moving files around. It's a small pane where you can drag any number of files into a 'stack', then drag them back out into another tab. This eliminates the need to have more than one Path Finder window open, ever.

2. Path Finder has a built in terminal pane. This means I can quickly type in and execute any shell scripts with minimum fuss.

3. Path Finder has a built in text editor. You can also create new text and HTML files from inside of Path Finder.

4. Built in image viewer that also views PDFs. This eliminates the need to have Apples preview open or Adobe Acrobat.

5. The search facility in Path Finder is so much more powerful than spotlight. It enables you to hone your search a lot more and also add in if statements.

Try Path Finder out for yourself here - Cocoatech.com