AntiVirus Software and Apple Macs…

After a number of recent press stories, especially this one, I finally decided to install antivirus software on my MacBook Pro. I went for the Mac version of Sophos, which is free for home use.

My MacBook Pro is a couple of years old, has traveled the world and been on countless networks during that time. With that in mind, a virus scan revealed a grant total of zero viruses. I doubt I would be able to say that for a Windows laptop with no AV used in similar circumstances.

Although Macs are still a small percentage of the total PC market, I guess the rise in iDevices and the lack of people running AV software on Macs makes them an attractive target. Time will tell if they become the attack vectors everyone is predicting.

Cheers

Tim…

UltraEdit for Mac/Linux v2.1.0.3…

Followers of the blog will know I’m a big fan of UltraEdit. I have a multi-platform unlimited upgrades license, so I run it on Linux, Mac and occasionally on a Windows VM.

I noticed today that version 2.1.0.3 was released for Mac and Linux about a month ago. Not sure how I missed that on the update notices. 🙂 The changes for Mac are not that big because it was already at version 2.x, but the Linux version had been hanging around the 1.x for some time now and was missing a lot of functionality compared to the Mac version. This latest release is a pretty big catch-up for the Linux version and it now contains pretty much all of the functionality I use on a regular basis.

Both the Mac and Linux versions are still lagging behind the Windows version in terms of total functionality, but who cares about Windows… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

UltraEdit for Mac, Production Release…

Just to let you know, UltraEdit for Mac has now been released to production.

I’ve been using the beta version for a while and it’s really cool. If you love UltraEdit on Windows, then you will love UltraEdit on Mac. It’s been released as version 2.0, which from what I can see has pretty much all the features of the Windows version 16.x. The Linux version (1.0)  is still missing a lot, but it is supposed to have a version 2.0 release in the new year.

I’ve upgraded my Windows license to a multi-platform license with unlimited updates, so I can run UltraEdit on Windows, Linux and Mac and never pay for an upgrade again. It’s not the cheapest option but for a bit of kit like this I’m very willing to pay up.

So now I have UltraEdit on everything and SnagIt on Windows and Mac. If I could switch from Shutter to SnagIt on Linux I would be ecstatic. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

UltraEdit on Linux and Mac…

When I was a Windows user, one tool I felt I couldn’t live without was UltraEdit. It’s awesome.

A few months ago I checked the UltraEdit website and saw a Linux version of the editor was available. Unfortunately, it only had a subset of the functionality found in the Windows version. I checked again yesterday, and the Linux version is still lagging behind, but it’s a bit better than it was. I wrote to the company (IDM Computer Solutions) to ask when/if some of the functionality I require would be coming and it looks like the next release (start of next year) will include everything I need for my day-to-day use. What’s more, towards the end of this year there should be a Mac version available. Joy!

There are of course alternatives out there, but I really like Ultraedit and I’m happy to pay for a lifetime updates license on each platform (I already have a Windows one) if I have to. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a nice Christmas present from IDM Computer Solutions. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

When is 49 minutes not 49 minutes?

Answer: When you are doing the Snow Leopard upgrade on your MacBook Pro.

To be fair, once the progress bar started to move it did take about 49 minutes, but it took about 60 minutes for the progress bar to start moving. 🙂

Once the upgrade was done I had to download about 650M of updates, which I assume are things that have changed since Snow Leopard was released.

It’s now all done and dusted. I’m hoping for an easy ride, but time will tell.

Cheers

Tim…

VirtualBox 3.0 and Macs and stuff…

I read today that VirtualBox 3.0 has been released. In the past this wouldn’t have been a big thing for me because I mostly use VMware Server on my Linux box, but now I’m a MacBook owner it has more interest. I refuse to pay money for the crippled VMware Fusion on Mac, so VirtualBox is the obvious solution.

The Mac is starting to get under my skin. I’m currently writing this post on my Linux box and struggling. Why? I’m getting used to the Mac keyboard and the keys are in the “wrong” place on this keyboard. Also, having to change from cmd+c/cmd+v to ctrl+c/ctrl+v for copy/paste is hard work. I just stare at the keyboard for a second to try and figure it out. Funny how quickly a lifetime of automatically doing something can change in 2 weeks. 🙂

So it looks like my next PC will actually be a Mac, then at home I will be consistent. Oh no! It’s happening. I’m becoming an Apple fanboy. Aaarrrggghhh!!! 🙂

I’m still of the opinion that, looks aside, OS X is not better than Windows/Linux, it’s just different. It’s a nice kinda different, but not streets ahead as people would lead you to believe.

Anyway, enough musings of a Mac newbie… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…