Things I Miss About Windows
You have to realize, I was a big fan of the Windows operating system. I was very comfortable on there, happy with the speed and applications available. Before I even switched to mac, I had made a list of apps that I knew were not available on OSX knowing they were apps I would need to find a replacement for, run as an emulation app, or just miss.
I’ve been on my mac for over a month and I still have not installed Parallels (even though I have a license). So there’s nothing that I miss that much, but to follow up my post, Top Things I WILL miss about Windows Vista, here are a few items that would be nice if they were on mac:
- Snagit - not available for Mac (yet), I’m using Snapz Pro X and it’s decent, but not able to capture scrolling browser content and without the browser chrome.
- DVDfab Platinum - Awesome DVD ripping. Handbrake is cool, but I like to rip DVD’s uncompressed. There are other options, but nothing like DVDfab.
- Picasa - I haven’t yet transfered my (pre-switch) photo library over to iPhoto. I like iPhoto, but the features are just different than Picasa. Both apps have pros and cons and I could live with either of them. But it would rock is Google released Picasa for the mac.
- Google Talk - Adium is awesome for chatting and iChat is fantastic if you are hooking up with a fellow iChat user for voice and video communication. Both support Google accounts via Jabber. But what I miss from the Google Talk application on Windows is the simple ability for voice chat and to drag images into the chat window for sharing at full size. File sharing on Adium is jacked up and there’s no support for voice chat.
- Flash Develop - A free open source Actionscript editor with excellent code hinting and code completion. I really miss this one. I’ve replaced it with Flex Builder 3, which is an amazing application (until my 60 day trial ends… $300) but it’s built for Flex developers. I’m not a Flex developer but a Flash developer looking for a fantastic code editor. It feels like a huge hack to use Flex builder for Flash development in the Flash CS3 IDE. lots of switching back and fourth and you must create a project for every instance to get the code hinting. Kinda sucks, c’mon Adobe!
TextMate is an amazing app, but there’s still no robust code hinting or code completion for AS. - Sothink SWF Decompiler - The best Actionscript decompiler. Windows only.
That’s it. Nothing major. I’ll never go back. The simplicity of being on this machine and the massive amount of new applications that I’ve discovered have really made my computing experience much more pleasing.

8 Comments, Comment or Ping
Peter - Snagit Guide
Hi Paul,
You’re not alone missing Snagit
I wrote a post about this and the comments has been overwhelming.
Please see:
http://www.snagitguide.com/42/snagit-for-mac/
Good luck with your Mac.
Apr 23rd, 2008
CJ
Ditto.
Apr 23rd, 2008
Jake Crockett
Picasa is great (and the thing I miss most about Windows).
iPhoto blows (as does Aperture–I like Lightroom much better).
Looks like Google may release a Picasa for Mac in the near future though. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/15/exclusive-google-developing-mac-version-of-picasa-due-to-be-released-this-year/
Apr 23rd, 2008
Josh
For capturing screenshots of an entire site without the browser chrome, you should check out Paparazzi: http://www.derailer.org/paparazzi/
Apr 23rd, 2008
patatomic
DON’T USE iPHOTO!!! IT SUCKS!
Apr 23rd, 2008
Corey
Try the ScreenGrab! extension for Firefox to capture scrolling screens. A right click and you’re on your way from the contextual menu.
Apr 23rd, 2008
Paul Mayne
Thanks for the tips Josh and Corey, I’ll definitely check those out!
Apr 23rd, 2008
Pedro
Could meebo.com work for you as a google talk substitute? Hope it does
(i’m an xp guy, i’ve never really used a mac, but will definitely be my next computer
May 5th, 2008