Apr 27 2009
Bipartisan Goodwill– Cross Platform Picks
There’s no question OS X is king of operating systems, but some of us
have the unfortunate requirement to use other OS’s, and its great to
be able to use familiar applications on both platforms. This week’s
picks run on OS X, Windows and Linux.
File Management
It’s no Cyberduck, but FileZilla is one of the best FTP/SFTP clients
out there. It supports resumable transfers, drag and drop and simple
file privilege management.
This cross-platform app promises to sync everything. It does provide
you with flexible, scheduled file and directory synchronization.
Video Tools
Better known as VLC, this tool is probably the most powerful media
file player out there. It supports a ton of codecs and runs on a slew
of platforms.
If VLC doesn’t do it for you, MPlayer does about the same thing with a
different interface. Its just as free and supports an on screen info
display.
Miro is one of the oldest IPTV clients, allowing you to subscribe to
video podcasts and other RSS video channels. It also includes built in
support for YouTube downloas, BitTorrent and suports many video
formats.
If you’re in to international news (maybe about something besides the American presidential election) this is the video tool for you. Watch news from around the world (and maybe eventually other stuff) with this cross-platform video app.
Cross Platform Platforms
Probably the most exciting are whole platforms of applications build on a cross-platform framework. With Adobe Air installed, you can install and use the same applications on any of the there major platforms.
The days of Firefox as my default browser may be gone, but its robust selection of extensions make it a platform itself. There are Firefox extensions for everything from twittering to database access and file sharing.
Extra credit
Probably the first Java app not to suck on the Mac, this RSS reader has all kinds of advanced features (though it lacks the UI refinement of NetNewsWire and Vienna).
KompoZer is the reincarnation of the discontinued NVU project. It is a feature-rich HTML editor that includes CSS authoring tools.
Now, many of these apps may have superior equivalents on OS X, but cross-platform gems are something we can all agree on, right?