Donnie

I am also trying to switch over to only using my MacBook Pro as the primary machine. So far, I seem to have been very successfully, except for Exchange e-mail. Outlook is much superior to Entourage for this purpose. It handles text-wrapping better, the “View by Conversation” feature is nicer, and cached mode provides much better performance. Plus, of course, support for archiving to PST is there. I am trying to adopt to Entourage, but will probably end up using Outlook in Parallels (currently, I am accessing Outlook through Remote Desktop). Other than that, I am very happy with general wireless connectivity, web browsing, instant messaging, command line, MS Office, iSight, etc. I keep discovering neat features on the Apple, and really enjoy them!

One quick note on Firefox: Version 1.5.0.2 was recently released as a Universal Binary, and runs much faster and consumes a lot less CPU than 1.5.0.1. I would strongly recommend trying it out. Deer Park is in Alpha, but still a ways from being released.

There are issues and I have only been able to get my 80 plus Macs to work properly as an IMAP client, not as Exchange.

Exchange 2003 is coming so I hope:

- I can connect as a Exchange mail account and get better more robust performance
- One must put the the actual Exchange IP address into OS X Mail or nada happens, 10.x.x.x, especially in a non Active Directory env. or WINS, the Macs get no name resolution

- With Exchange 2003 and AD 2003 I am assuming I can input the mail server name and Domain, AD will then resolve the mail server name properly (assuming the user /Mac is Bound in AD. We shall see.

- I (have) instance where Mac OS X Mail users who are connecting to a certain Exchange 5.5 server as IMAP are working for months. (Something happens on that NT4 / Exchange 5.5 server and now these Mac OS X Mail users (as IMAP client) can not connect. (IMAP is enabled but something is funky), of course the WIN IT guys do not want to fess up).

Once the users Exchange Mail accounts are moved to another server, (different), wa la and I input that IP into Mac Mail, wa la they connect again.

I am thinking these are all issues with Exchange 5.5 on NT4, (an absolute disaster and mangler of Mail, especially on OS 10.4x

Here’s to hoping accounts with 10’s of thousands of emails using OS X Mail on Exchange / AD 2003, is a much, much better experience, because, my Mac Mail users are hanging by a thread with this spit and bailing wire 5.5 / NT4.

Mac OS X Mail, especially in Exchange environ, chokes with 10’s of thousands of mail, by keeping it under 1000 or so, it works much better.

That said, Mail in Leopard 10.5 could use some serious help, like better Exchange support and handling / archiving 10’s of thousands of emails. I hope this is in the works in Leopard 10.5.

Like you, I’ve been worried about archiving e-mails. I chose FastMailBase – http://www.manybases.com/files_eng/fastmailbase.htm , which I’ve found to work very well – but then I’ve a lot less stuff to archive! It wasn’t particularly fast to import the initial bunch, but it is easy to then keep on top of things. The other main option appears to be MailSteward – http://www.mailsteward.com/ , which seems very actively developed. I looked at both, but my choice might not suit you! MailSteward does have cost on its side, and is speedy to import the files – but I preferred the way of handling attachments and MIME messages that FastMailBase has.

Karen

GraphicConverter – a shareware app, make that indispensable graphic tool
OmniGraffle Professional – a good Visio replacement (it will import and export Visio XML)
CyberDuck – a good FTP tool

and I’ll second NetNewsWire as that is how I read you ;-)

- Yojimbo
- QuickSilver (Merlin @ 43Folders has blogged much about its use)
- OmniOutliner, including the Kinkless GTD system

Have fun.

Other have been tracking cool Mac OS X applications
Brad Choate offers up an inventory of Mac software appsCool OSX Apps has a continuing list of interesting Mac softare