I recently switched over to a MacBook Pro so I’m still really new at Mac software ecosystem. What is the best guide or what tips do you have to quickly get adept at using Mac for developing on both Mac/Unix and MS platforms (*.NET, SharePoint, SQL Server, etc) using VMWare Fusion? For example, I’ve setup NetBeans, FlexBuilder, Eclipse, TextMate, VMWare Fusion, OpenOffice, FireFox, dragged Terminal.app to my dock, upgraded the Ruby installation and related gems and so on… Things I’ve not done but looking at (based on other’s experiences) include QuickSilver (is it all that different than SpotLight?), MacPorts (or Fink?), getting started with iPhone, Android, and so on. You can tell from my inexperience that I don’t know what the best ways of doing things are yet, and don’t want to get in the habit of just installing things and then leave files and stuff laying around slowing the system down. If you have any really cool tips about setting up a developer’s Mac please share them!
Update: The nature of my job is I’m always working with new/different technologies, some Windows/MS based, some not, and with the Mac (and Fusion) even the MS based stuff is more enjoyable to me.
Install all the Mac dev stuff, XCode etc., so you get the compilers.
For sure, Macports. Look through their catalog and install all the usual packages you’re used to from Linux or other systems — including development-related stuff like flex/bison, emacs, doxygen, m4, perl, python, etc.
I prefer ‘iTerm’ over the built-in terminal. Don’t forget to ‘export COMMAND_MODE=unix2003’ that makes a number of things work the way you’re used to.
I haven’t given URLs for any of the things I’ve mentioned. That’s what Google is for.