Apple Thoughts: A Call to Action For Mac Developers

Project Management

Figure 3: OpenProj is open source Project Management software written in Java.

One of the programs I really miss from the Windows world is Microsoft Project. While there are plenty of open source project management tools, none of them provide the amount of power that Microsoft Project has. Microsoft stopped development of Project for the Mac in 1994. As much as I love open source software, I'd pay for an updated version of Project for the Mac if Microsoft was inclined to make it. For now I'm using OpenProj,

Odds and Ends

Figure 4: Inkscape is a Vector Graphics package which is ideal for those doing light vector graphic work.

Currently, the GIMP and Inkscape are available for the Mac, but both require you to run X11. For those who aren't aware of these programs, the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a graphics processing application often compared to Adobe's Photoshop. It's not as powerful, but for many people, it's a viable alternative. Inkscape is a Vector drawing application similar to Illustrator. Again, it's not as feature rich but it's a good alternative if you don't have the money for Illustrator and are willing to live with Inkscape's limitations. They are working on a native port of both applications for the Mac, and I'd love to see Mac Open Source developers jump on board and help out so we get both native ports faster.

Conclusion
There's plenty of room for innovation in the areas I've mentioned. I'm sure there's plenty of other applications that need to be written. If you've got some ideas, I'd like to hear them. What do you think?