Changing the System

A story about abandoning Windows and finding new apps and possibilities on a Mac.

A few months ago I finally decided to switch. New MacBook Pros were introduced by Apple and the specs were very tempting. I had been thinking about getting a Mac for quite a while then, and it was natural for me that when the new update come I would get one. And so I did.

Switching systems is a pain. A long, never-ending pain. Of course, I still have to keep my old machine, as many of my photos were developed in windows-only applications. I was a Windows user since Win95, and started thinking about changing the system only a year or so ago. So don’t blame me for having some “windows-only” apps.

After a couple months on the new mac I am finally getting used to it. Learning Terminal and searching hundreds of apps everyday to find the ones actually useful for my workflow. My main reasons for the switch were OSX (obviously) and Aperture 3. But it soon dazzled me how many cool apps I can get on Mac. Thay have a completely different feel than Win apps, more of a simplistic style. I also realized that I need only a bunch of them to get things done the way I like.

I had been consciously developing my workflow for around 2 years before I started pondering about mac. The folder structures, file-naming, retouch, resizing and saving etc. One day I realized I have everything covered, I knew every next step – I was sure of what I was doing and why. It’s a great feeling, believe me. Getting a new system was like suddenly becoming blind again after years of seeing. Imagine that you sit down to do something, and you have completely no clue how to do it, you don’t even know where to start. You have to take slow, small steps into exploring what you can and what you can’t, learning new rules and possibilities. At the end, it is very consolidating. You learn how to solve problems, you discover new, often better, ways of making things happen. And that’s beautiful, but obviously, it takes time. Time that you can’t spend on creating something, however, it is time spent on recreating yourself.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, mostly because I would like you to understand why I was so inactive on my website and social media – I was a child who needed to learn to speak again;)

As some of you may know, I work as a freelance web developer. I’ve recently begun a cooperation with a great designer and my dear friend Magdalena Wierzbowiecka. I will not bore you with details, be we hope to make some really cool sites together. Again though, Mac showed it was a completely different beast, which encouraged me to reconsider my code-writing workflow. It turned out amazing, as I sped up my debugging and uncluttered my main machine with two simple apps that I will present in a second.

My current set of tools is a bit simplistic, but they get the job done, and that’s most important for me. One thing I’m considering at the moment is adding Photoshop and Illustrator for seamless collaboration with my designer, but it would need to wait as it’s a significant expense.

For my photography, all I need at the moment is Aperture 3. Completely love it’s streamlined workflow, although I still get a headache thinking about the library concept, but I’m getting used to it. Photoshop will also be useful for compositing and hard retouch, but since I don’t do much of these, for now I’m happy without it.

My development tools got a bit more complicated. My usual “code -> local server -> ftp -> production server” system got a face-lift. I completely removed the local server from the workflow and added FolderWatch + Transmit 4 combo. These two allow me to have a local copy of my application and test it in real-time on the production server. FolderWatch has still some issues with deep catalogs, but when I add a new process for each catalog I want to sync, it gets super-fast. It’s a tool I would also recommend for any real-time backups. I don’t know how it will handle bigger files, but with PHP it is worth the hassle.

The other icons on my dock are SublimeText 2 that I’m currently testing (and writing this article on), Diagrammix that I’m trying out for quick diagrams and schemes, and the Reeder – a really cool client for Google Reader. Four catalogs below are my way of organizing tools based on their usefulness in Web, Media, System and Other categories – much faster than scrolling all apps in one folder.

Thanks guys for reading and hope to see you soon with some new photos. Take care!