I just now noticed that Parallels for OSX now has a Directory of Virtual Appliances that offers over 50 open source operating systems with specific features. For example there is an AMP Web Developer Suite that contains PHP/PERL/Python, MySQL and PostgreSQL all installed, configured, and ready to use.
Dan Benjamin has updated his awesome instructions for Hivelogic - The Narrative - Building Ruby, Rails, Mongrel, and MySQL on Mac OS X. I’ve used these instructions in the past and they work great. The advantage of his method is that you compile the software from source (don’t be afraid it’s really easy) so you have great control over your configuration and upgrades will be easier.
ISP on a Mac is a great series of articles that will show you how to compile all the software required to turn your Mac into a full fledged web host. Instructions are easy to follow and cover installing Apache 2, PHP 5.x, MySQL 5, Postfix for mail and spam filtering. What make this series great is you learn how to compile your servers and how to specify many different features and configuration options.
If you are working with Flex 2.0 on OSX and would prefer to use Textmate instead of the Flex Builder Beta, Daniel Parnell has created a Flex 2 bundle that automates the build process and a few auto-complete features.
Paparazzi! is a new tool I’ve added to my MacBook Pro that makes it super easy to make complete screenshots of web pages. Simply drop an url onto the Paparazzi window and get a PNG back. It is important to note that the resulting screenshot is the entire webpage and not only the part of the page that would be viewable within a browser window.
Since receiving my MacBook Pro a few months ago, I’ve been looking for a capable and free archive/unarchive program. The Unarchiver is a great freeware application that handles most common compression formats like zip, gz, rar, 7z and many others. It has great Finder integration which makes it extremely easy to extract files. I would highly recommend this great piece of software as a replacement for the out-of-the-box OSX compression tools.
Colleague Mike Haugland has posted his experiences compiling Apache 2.2.3, PHP 5.1.5 and MySQLi on Intel Mac. I too experienced similar struggles - so you may find this post helpfule!
Benjamin Han has a great list of UNIX Tips for Mac OS X. Many of the tips will help you tweak some of the annoyances out of using OSX and turn you into a bit of a power user!
If you’ve bootcamped your new Intel MacBookPro and would like to get the fn keys to work, you should give the Input Remapper a try. Although still in alpa, it does a pretty fine job of enabling those very important laptop keys.
Just in time for my new Mac Book Pro, idiosyncrasies.org has a nice list of applications that will help me Switch from Windows XP to Mac OSX with ease! Add those applications with Parallels and BootCamp, and now there has never been a better time to switch!
