Robb. Knight.

In preparation for starting Web Technologies at uni next month, I did a clean install on my MacBook Pro and install only the apps that I will need for uni. After a lot of swapping, testing and changing, here is the complete list:

Dock:

• Chrome [Free] - My browser of choice everywhere; it's fast, plenty of extensions and updates are fast as all hell. [free]
• Cog [Free] - I need my MBP to be as fast as possible which means no slow, bloated software. Bye bye iTunes. Cog is a fairly simple music player, but it just works.
• Sparrow [Free/£6.99] - Until I got a Mac, I would always use the Gmail webapp, but Sparrow changed that. It's fast, easy to use and doesn't feel like email in the traditional sense.
• iCal [Free] - Syncing with Google between my MBP, iMac and iPhone with multiple calendars to keep organised.
• Writeroom [£17.49] - Although a little pricey, and there are free alternatives out there like jDarkroom, I love Writeroom. The full screen, no-distraction environment helps me to blast out a lot of writing in a short amount of time. Perfect for assignments.
• NVAlt [Free] - I like to keep notes in plain text files so I can edit them on any computer irrelevant of OS or software. NVAlt lets you read .txt files from a folder or even sync with Simplenote, which is awesome.
• Coda [£69.99] - It's like this: I couldn't build sites without Coda. Code editor, CSS editor, terminal, preview, it's all in there.
• 1Password [$31.99] - 1Password doesn't just store passwords; you can store notes, credit card numbers, membership numbers and my favourite feature: software licences. Perfect.

Not in the dock

• Alfred [Free] - Keyboard launcher. Love it.
• Forklift [$29.95] - Nice, simple FTP client. I do like Transmit as well but I got Forklift in a bundle and it's good enough for now.
• TextExpander [$34.95] - TextExpander saves me an inordinate amount of time by saving from typing my email, phone number, address, websites as well as Lipsum text. Well worth every penny.
• Skitch [Free] - For screenshots and annotation. It rocks. And the full version is free now. Go get it.
• FlashFrozen [Free] - I haven't gone as far as to disable Flash, but FlashFrozen allows me to kill the plugin as soon as it gets too, y'know, "flashy".
• Caffeine [Free] - Little menubar app for stopping my Mac from going to sleep.
• Dropbox [Free] - Keeping all my documents in sync with my iMac, as well as available from any browser.
• MarsEdit [$39.95] - If you blog, you need MarsEdit. Although this isn't uni-specific, I still might want to write a post or two in my spare time between lectures.
• And that's pretty much it. If I've miss an app that is great for students or web devs, let me know in the comments.