Since I recently began using an Apple PowerBook G4 as my main machine, I've been searching for ways to squeeze a more pleasurable experience from my PCs. It turns out there are a lot of developers who have devoted time and money into making PCs behave like they're running Mac OSX. Here are a few ways to get your PC looking sexy while you save up for that expensive Mac hardware:
- Object Dock by Stardock - This mimicks the OSX Dockbar quite well. Other Windows programs that try and mimic the OSX fast graphics display fall down on the job, but the Object Dock does a fairly faithful reproduction. Very customizable. Plus the Docklet applications are useful and free. Price: Free for now... it's in beta. A tip, let your Windows start-bar autohide, it's just going to clutter things up. Here's a detail of my current ObjectDock set-up.
- AppRocket by Candy Labs this is a faithful copy of the the essential, but not official, OSX helper app - LaunchBar. Price: $18 (free trial)
- Object Desktop by Stardock - I haven't tested the full suite but some of the Desktop apps add window minimize/maximize functionality as seen in OSX. Price: $49.
- Knock-offs of the Expose feature of OSX are plentiful. I purchased WinPlosion (formerly WinExpose) Price: $9.95. WinPlosion is a bit slow and not really worth the money. Here are a few others that mimick this feature on Windows as well: iEx Price: Free. Windows Exposer Price: $7.
- Don't forget to pick up a copy of the platform agnostic Firefox browser and iTunes for Windows to complete the experience.
- Stickers? I didn't go this far but Stewart Butterfield has taken to slapping an Apple logo on his Windows notebook to blend into the crowd at geeky events like ETech. Nice try, but we are onto you Stewart!
Did I miss your favorite Mac on Windows app? Let me know in the comments. Good luck!
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