Mac equivalents for windows refugee

[jasimon9]

I am looking for highly regarded substitutes for certain Windows programs that I have relied upon. I have already replaced quite a few of my tools with the "obvious" replacements. And there are often lists for common programs, but my list probably includes more "obscure" applications.

Here is my list:

• WinSCP
• TortoiseSVN
• Photoshop Elements (in case the Mac version is not the best alternative)
• ZendCode
• ZendStudio

 

[Cromulent]

I am looking for highly regarded substitutes for certain Windows programs that I have relied upon. I have already replaced quite a few of my tools with the "obvious" replacements. And there are often lists for common programs, but my list probably includes more "obscure" applications.

Here is my list:

• WinSCP
• TortoiseSVN
• Photoshop Elements (in case the Mac version is not the best alternative)
• ZendCode
• ZendStudio

WinSCP equivalent:

Built into Mac OS X, just use the command line to scp files around.

TortoiseSVN equivalent:

Xcode has SVN capabilities built in, plus if you install the developer tools you also get the command line version of the SVN tools. If you really must have a separate GUI SVN client then there are some out there but I don't really use a GUI for SVN.

Photoshop Elements equivalent:

Try GIMP out first, it is free and extremely good. First install the latest version of Xquartz and then download GIMP here. If you don't like it you always get the Mac version of Photoshop Elements.

Zend Studio is available for the Mac.

I assume you mean Zend Core rather than Zend Code? If so then you can just use the built in version of PHP and Apache and just download the latest version of MySQL or whatever database you use and recompile PHP to add the relevant extensions.

 

[jasimon9]

WinSCP equivalent:

Built into Mac OS X, just use the command line to scp files around.

TortoiseSVN equivalent:

Xcode has SVN capabilities built in, plus if you install the developer tools you also get the command line version of the SVN tools. If you really must have a separate GUI SVN client then there are some out there but I don't really use a GUI for SVN.

Photoshop Elements equivalent:

Try GIMP out first, it is free and extremely good. First install the latest version of Xquartz and then download GIMP here. If you don't like it you always get the Mac version of Photoshop Elements.

Zend Studio is available for the Mac.

I assume you mean Zend Core rather than Zend Code? If so then you can just use the built in version of PHP and Apache and just download the latest version of MySQL or whatever database you use and recompile PHP to add the relevant extensions.

Yep Zend Core.

 

[mkrishnan]

Photoshop Elements equivalent:

Try GIMP out first, it is free and extremely good. First install the latest version of Xquartz and then download GIMP here. If you don't like it you always get the Mac version of Photoshop Elements.

PSE is fairly well regarded, and if you have a dual format disc that has the Mac version, you might as well... otherwise, two more recent programs that have been popular on OS X are Pixelmator and ChocoFlop. They're both non-free / commercial programs, but ChocoFlop is in free public beta right now. Both programs make use of OS X's CoreImage APIs heavily to use the GPU for graphics processing.

 

[MisterMe]

...

Photoshop Elements equivalent:

Try GIMP out first, it is free and extremely good. First install the latest version of Xquartz and then download GIMP here. If you don't like it you always get the Mac version of Photoshop Elements.

...

The GIMP is free, but it is targeted more to the PS user than the PSE user. What is more, the GIMP requires requires X11 which makes it a bit more of a bear than PS.

Photoshop Elements is indeed available on the Mac. It works well. I can strongly recommend GraphicConverter. It is shareware, but it fully functional even if you never pay the shareware fee. Like PSE, GC accepts PS plug-ins. Unlike PSE, it has a genuine Mac user interface. GC's developer Lemkesoft updates the app almost weekly.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Before investing in Photoshop Elements, take a close look at the current version of iPhoto. It might just do everything you need. I also sometimes use Seashore. It's basic, and hasn't been updated for a while, but it works, and it's freeware.

 

[jasimon9]

Before investing in Photoshop Elements, take a close look at the current version of iPhoto. It might just do everything you need. I also sometimes use Seashore. It's basic, and hasn't been updated for a while, but it works, and it's freeware.

I did not originally give my requirements for the program, which is an oversight. My requirements are extremely simple: pre-processing of customer images for inclusion in our website.

Therefore, I need to mainly crop, resize, change the format to gif or jpg, and compress the file. It is extremely rare that I do much more than that.

I never use it in connection with a digital camera, photo collection, redeye adjustments, etc.

In checking iPhoto, it does all these latter things but none of the former. Perhaps I am missing something.

 

[IJ Reilly]

You can crop, resize and change format in iPhoto. You can also do these things in Preview. Any image can be imported into iPhoto, simply by dragging it in. The image manipulation tools in iPhoto are actually pretty good now.

 

[jasimon9]

You can crop, resize and change format in iPhoto. You can also do these things in Preview. Any image can be imported into iPhoto, simply by dragging it in. The image manipulation tools in iPhoto are actually pretty good now.

I originally could not find those functions. But I looked further and found them. However, as is often the case, the functions are inflexible and limited compared to the more powerful capabilities of Photoshop Elements 4, which I am currently using (saying nothing about more recent PE versions).

"Pretty good now" has to be compared to some level of expectation, and the much finer grain control that is apparently missing is still a gap for me.

It is important for me to be able to get a good compromise between file size and quality by precisely controlling those values. In iPhoto, you have 3 quality settings of jpg exports. In Photoshop Elements you have 101 settings (that is, a range from 0 to 100). For gif files there seems to be no control over quality, or maybe 3 settings again. In PE, you can control how many colors from 1 to 256.

So my decision is probably whether I can get by with less flexibility than I am used to (which often seems to be the case when you compare a "generic tool provided with the OS" as compared against "best of breed" in a market segment.)

So far I am still doubting that iPhoto is the tool for my job.

 

[ceezy3000]

in place of PSE i suggest pixelmator, its a great app. much better than gimp and only 50 dollars

 

[IJ Reilly]

So far I am still doubting that iPhoto is the tool for my job.

Fair enough. I was just suggesting that you check first. Many are surprised by the number of image manipulation tools now included in iPhoto. Incidentally Preview has a jpeg compression slider similar to Photoshop. For my purposes, I find that between the two, I can usually get the job done.