If you are an IT professional, there are times when using Macs can be more than a little frustrating - like when you have to use “Windows Only” software. Most of the time, the brute force answer is launching a version of Windows from VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop for Mac; and running the Windows software from there.
However, there are times when virtualization is not the answer . . . or maybe not the best answer. For those times, I offer the following suggestions gleaned from more than four years with a Mac.The Terminal replacement: MacWiseOS X’s Terminal is fine for getting your unix CLI on, but it is lacking simple solutions for many things. Unless you are a unix USB hardware wiz, you will probably get frustrated trying to use Terminal and a USB-to-serial interface adapter with a switch or router. I can vouch for the MacWise + Keyspan’s USB to Serial adapter (USA-19HS) combo working with Snow Leopard. Don’t know of anyone else that offers a proven solution for configuring network equipment via a serial interface from your Mac. MacWise is feature rich - which may sound like an oxymoron to the MCSE/MCITP crowd when considering a “telnet” replacement. MacWise includes support for things like AppleScript and a bi-directional clipboard (can interact with both your mac and the remote host - not as simple as it sounds). However, I’ve only used these features using VT100 on switches and routers - so your mileage may vary with other protocols.http://www.macwise.com/Price: $95. (Keyspan USA-19HS is $26.31 from Amazon)
File Transfers: TransmitIf you just need to occasionally FTP some files, there are many free FTP options. However, if you have to maintain multiple remote archives or sync data between hosts all the time, then Transmit should be on your OS X short list. In addition to FTP, Transmit supports SFTP, Amazon S3 and WebDAV. Other useful features (at least to me) include session logging and AppleScript support.
http://www.panic.com/transmit/Price: $34
Another Terminal replacement: SecureCRTSecureCRT is well respected on Windows (even works with Win 7), and now there is a beta version for OS X. If you need a multi-platform solution and you don’t need serial port support on OS X, then this might be better than MacWise.
http://www.vandyke.com/products/beta/securecrt/mac_osx.htmlThe licensing details that may be hard to find on VanDyke’s web site:
Q: Will my SecureCRT license keys work on the Mac OS X version?A: If you have license keys that are eligible to upgrade to SecureCRT 6.6 or later, yes, they will activate SecureCRT for Mac. As outlined in the license agreement, you may use SecureCRT on one machine at a time with the same license key.
Pricing: $99 ($139 with 3 years of updates). If you can live with file transfers for Windows only, you can buy a bundle that includes SecureCRT and SecureFX for $129 ($179 with 3 years of updates).
A low cost Terminal replacement: iTermIf the pricing of MacWise and SecureCRT puts you off, iTerm is a lower cost Terminal replacement (don't expect anything more) that wasn’t bad when I tried it . . . and that is lower cost as in free! http://iterm.sourceforge.net/ OS X and a “clean” install of EnlightenmentIf you just want a lightweight X11 server for you Mac, then this blog post might be worth a shot. You will have to install the OS X developer tools, and it is probably not a great solution for *ix noobs. http://trac.enlightenment.org/e/wiki/MACOSX
Probably my next Sunday afternoon project . . .