Macs are their own little universe of hardware, design, and software. It's an incomplete universe, like any other, but a nerd can dream. These are 10 applications we wish made the jump from Windows to Mac to make it a better place.


Note: In almost all of these cases, we're not saying that "This exact application should be ported to Mac OS X." In some cases, that would be ludicrous. What we are suggesting is that there's a need for a particular kind of application, and that this application, on Windows, fills exactly that need. Also, for most purposes, we stuck with free applications. For a counterpoint, check out these 10 Mac apps that should be on Windows.


10. Office Viewers

Microsoft does, of course, have an Office product for Macs, but it's far from a priority for the firm. Even with a new 2011 version on the way, many Mac users choose not to shell out for a full-fledged Office pack, and others still don't need the iWork suite. Then along comes a finely formatted document from an Office user, and neither the Mac's built-in TextEdit nor any other freeware does quite the same job of opening it as it was meant to be seen. (You could go with OpenOffice.org, if you don't mind waiting a few minutes to view the document.) Go ahead and browbeat the sender for forcing their proprietary standards on you. In the meantime, don't you wish you had a simple view/print tool that offered great compatibility with Office docs? Microsoft somewhat makes amends with its free Office Web Apps' compatibility powers, but it would be nice if they offered a desktop view-only tool.




9. TeraCopy


Macs usually do a better job of copying files between locations, and don't fail or die as regularly, so recommending TeraCopy isn't about stability. It's about adding advanced features to file transfers for the non-Terminal-expert user, so that transfers can be paused and resumed safely, run "Test" differential comparisons on two folders, and otherwise geek out about file management.



8. Fences


Mac has its Spaces system for managing multiple desktops, and the applications that should stick to each space. Windows has freeware to offer multiple desktops, too, and each file system and explorer has its pros and cons. One area in which Windows wins is Fences, a free app from the Stardock team that keeps your files, icons, and other desktop material locked into user-defined areas. They're like force fields for your messy desktop, and, truth be told, Mac users are just like Windows users in some regards—it's easy to let things fall to the Desktop, and it's nice when the Desktop can take care of itself. Fences on Mac would be a great thing.



7. Rainmeter


Macs have a decent on-screen display creator, GeekTool, but it doesn't have the same kind of enthusiastic community, easy-to-use beginner tool, or quite the same adjustment powers of Rainmeter. It's a key component of our featured desktops, and the variety of desktop setups shows its power. Even if Rainmeter weren't around, the native themes of Windows 7 offer a good deal more flexibility than the Mac offers. It seems fair to ask for users to have control of colors and shading, while leaving control of the window dynamics to the designers.




6. A Different Kind of CCleaner


Experienced and clever Mac users know where everything goes—what the Library folder is for, where the preferences are stored, and what happens when you delete the wrong thing from a user's Home folder. New Mac users and switchers don't know, and occasionally have to hope they can phrase their questions correctly to Google to find the answer. CCleaner does a specific job on Windows systems, cleaning out caches, temporary files, junk cookies, and more deeply hidden cruft. It would be pretty great if someone wrote a tool for Macs that cleaned house, yes, but also suggested other optimizations that the user could then approve or ignore.



5. Ninite


We're being a bit particular here, we know, but hopefully in every Mac user's interest. When we made the Lifehacker Pack 2010 for Windows, the all-in-one installer Ninite made it easy to point to a single page where new computer owners, re-installers, or those looking to spruce up their computer could grab all or some of our recommendations, and then install them while walking away to grab a cold beverage. For the Lifehacker Pack for Mac, there's really no such tool around. Macs do, of course, install applications differently, with the user usually being required to drop the entire application package dropped into a folder that they sometimes need administrative access to. That makes sense for what Apple's trying to do—make computers easy. They (or clever outside developers) could make it just as easy for power users to quickly install the stuff they need, though, with a Ninite-like tool.





As with photo editing, it would be great to have a free plain text editor that was as versatile as Notepad++. Notepad++ is flexible, extensible, and very friendly to coders of HTML, PHP, Ruby, Python, or any other language. Actually, no matter what you're writing with or about, Notepad++ is up for the job, or there's probably a plug-in to make it so. Most important to what we're rooting for, Notepad++ is free, and open-source—that would be a lovely thing to see on a Mac. Smultron used to cover this territory well, but it's no longer under active development, and TextWrangler doesn't have the breadth of features we'd like. Update: A reader points us toward Fraise, which is Smultron reborn, and may be exactly what we were looking for.



3. Microsoft Security Essentials


It's still true, generally, that given the overall popularity of Windows, and the Mac's Unix-type core and design, virus makers are less inclined to target the OS, and applications less able to let malware in. That doesn't mean that, as Macs grow in popular acceptance, aided in part by iPhones, they couldn't possibly be the target of exploits (even Apple takes precautions), or just lesser crapware. So while 68 percent of Lifehacker readers don't run an antivirus app on their Mac, there's still a place for a light, agile, and quiet malware protector—in the Windows world, this is Microsoft Security Essentials.


2. AutoHotkey


AutoHotKey is a scripting language that can be molded to basically do anything, anything inside Windows. A good number of Lifehacker's own coding projects, including Texter and Belvedere, are built on it, and the How-To Geek's own site is a veritable treasure trove of AHK-based fixes for Windows annoyances and shortcomings. Macs have AppleScript. It is not close to the same thing, or as far-reaching in its powers. It might be the longest shot of all our wishes, because Apple may never allow a third-party app such deep access to the system functions. But it would be pretty nice.





Paint.NET isn't a full-fledged Photoshop or attempted equivalent, like the GIMP. It's more than an image viewer or very light editor, like Paint. It's just about what the non-expert needs to crop, size, balance, and otherwise tweak their photos and graphics. As Gina discovered, there isn't a straight-up solution to finding the middle ground on a Mac, or at least a free middle path solution. So while it used to be a fair assumption that every Mac owner had Photoshop—heck, at one point, it seemed like the only reason one would have a Mac—it would be nice to grab a good enough solution. Pinta seems to be aiming for that exact target, though, so give it your support.



We've heard rumors that the strengths and weaknesses of Windows and Mac software is a hotly contested thing. This is just our own list, drawn from editors' experiences on Windows and Mac machines. What's the killer Windows app or feature we're missing, that desperately needs developed for Mac? Share your suggestions in the comments.

