Developer

Something Mac users take for granted nowadays is the ability to save documents (and web pages) as PDF’s natively. That is, I can turn almost anything into a PDF because, to hear Apple tell it, that’s the "default" document format.

On Windows you’ll have to rely on the plethora of utilities out there, including Easy PDF Converter from Sowedoo software.

Easy PDF features a very simple, drag-and-drop sort of wizard-based interface for converting all manner of documents to the venerable PDF format. Including (but not limited to) Excel, Word, plain text, and PDF. Yes, there’s a need. Because Easy PDF allows you to password-protect your docs in the process. I’ve used it to lock down all manner of sensitive info when I’m working for people too cheap to buy Acrobat. All for $24 (free trial).

Hey, Mac users! Frustrated by the fact that Windows folks can emulate a Mac running OSX using Pear PC? Well, worry no more. Thanks to the Mac-on-Mac project, now you too can run a virtual machine and experience the joys of OSX — right on your Mac! Okay. I couldn’t resist. The idea of running Mac emulation on a Mac seems a little crazy on the surface. But, really, it’s pretty useful, especially for developers. By using a virtual machine on your Mac, you can run multiple versions of OSX at the same time, which can help you test compatibility under earlier versions of the OS. Mac-on-Mac will even let you run OS9 in a virtual machine, instead of in Classic mode (though I really hope no one’s actually developing software for OS9 anymore!). And unlike Virtual PC, which gives Windows users the same kind of Win-on-Win capabilities, Mac-on-Mac is open source. So, grab a copy and turn your Tiger machine into a virtual Panther/Jaguar/OS9 machine today!