It was a long weekend for me, to make a long story short I’ve got a fresh new install of OS X and a lot more cars in Forza 2. Not that anything went wrong, just needed to update my desktop machine to the 21rst century and relax a bit from all my coding and designing. About the time I was installing MySQL I thought I should share my development environment. While it isn’t perfect for everyone, it is a solid environment that will work for most people.

First things first

System settings, boring stuff but get it all out of the way. Make sure you got all the updates, setup your network desktop, dock and all of that jazz. OS X makes all of that stuff really easy so I won’t get into it, besides your a web designer, you should know how to do all that.

Programs: Make it Shiny

Now for the fun part, loading up your fast new OS X install with tons and tons of programs and stuff to make your Windows friends jealous! I like to get the essentials out of the way first.

Essential Software

  1. Adobe - I install Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Those are the main programs I use from Adobe(you should never ever install dreamweaver! Shame on you for even thinking it.)
  2. Firefox -Yes I’m sure you all knew about this one so I’ll talk about the addons I use.
    1. Adblock Plus - Keep those pesky ads at bay.
    2. Firebug - The ultimate in-browser web page editor/debugger and everything else. Use with YSlow.
    3. Web Developer Toolbar - Has everything you could ever want in a web dev toolbar.
    4. I also have a few other extensions like delicious toolbar and stumbleupon, but really who cares about that stuff?
  3. Quicksilver - Yes Finder in Leopard is much better now, but Quicksilver is still by far the quickest …everything launcher/finder/controller. Essentially Quicksilver is so powerful I don’t even think the developer knows what it can do. You think Skynet is from the movies? I think it is already here, and it is called Quicksilver. I for one welcome my new overlord, all hail quicksilver.
  4. Adium - The best chat program I have found. I love Adium, and Adium loves you. Be sure to customize everything and download lots of plugins, skins, and icons!
  5. CyberDuck - My FTP of choice. Simple, free, and it works.
  6. Toast Titanium - For my burner I love Toast. It does everything I’ve ever need it to do and it does it perfect.
  7. TextMate - Last but probably the most important is TexMate. The best text editor ever made, there I said it. Nothing compare so don’t even try, except it and install it, live a happier longer life.

Those are my essentials that I install right away and every time. Don’t skip one or it will be like a pie without crust.

Meat please, rare, with potatoes

Ok so now you got your software you need to create just about anything but you need to test it right? The answer is yes, don’t mess with live servers there is plenty of time to bang your head against the desk later. For now lets get some basics installed.

MySQL

Even though this article is aimed more at designers, chances are you still need a database. I use MySQL, it is powerful yet simple to use, and has a huge community to help you out when everything goes terribly wrong. Read the tutorial on how to install MySQL(it is aimed at Wordpress but it will still apply to everyone), it is pretty self explanatory install except for that pesky preferences panel not working. And get the preferences panel working here(there is a patched pref. pane at the bottom of the post).

I won’t go into how to get PHP(it is in the tutorial above) or Ruby on Rails up and running because this is more for designers.

Wordpress

Since I use Wordpress I’ll throw this out there. If you follow the tutorial on getting MySQL running it will also show you how to install Wordpress. I usually do things a little different, I keep multiple databases for each theme/client and a separate wordpress install for each. This is really easy, just have separate folders in your /sites/ directory for each wordpress installation. This keeps all my files nice and neat and I don’t have to switch themes all the time or worry about messing up custom fields.

KISS

Keep it simple stupid. One text editor, two image programs, one database program. From this point I would go on to install things like Ruby on Rails and some developer tools, but that is up to you. With this current setup I can crank out websites with no problems and everything works seamlessly.

Got any more programs I need to add to the list? Let me know what you can’t live without in the comments.