We first metioned Cyberduck FTP here on Download Squad back in 2005, but it's worth revisiting. When you switch from Windows to a Mac, one of the first things you do is to try to find Mac equivalents to your Windows software. Smart FTP is a fantastic (and free for personal, educational and non-profit organizational use) FTP client on Windows. So what is there on the Mac?

It turns out that Cyberduck FTP is a fantastic and free FTP client available for OS X. Sporting a quirky name and a funky logo, Cyberduck does everything you might expect an FTP client to do. While it doesn't have a text editor built in, that's almost a blessing in disguise; it plays nice with a whole bunch of popular editors, so if you have one installed you can tell Cyberduck to use that editor in the preferences.

Cyberduck feels very Mac-ish, which makes it not only pleasant to use, but very easy to learn. It comes bundled with a dashboard widget, which is intended to give direct file dropping capabilities. Unfortunately, we were unable to get it working, but we'll keep at it because it's a great idea.

The word on the street these days is that switching to a Mac will give you a bunch of new stuff - all sorts of fun software to play with, a CEO with his own Reality Distortion Field™ and a small, rabid cult following that we don't necessarily recommend you join up with. One thing you lose, however, is that Print Screen key; setting up a Mac desktop or notebook will reveal that the key is nowhere to be found, apparently leaving us out in the cold when it comes to capturing that golden moment on your display.

Fortunately, this isn't the case. In fact, Apple built two great screenshot tools into the Mac OS X software (in other words: they're free, and if you're on a fairly recent Mac, you already have them installed). One is a dedicated app, while another is a handy set of universal keyboard shortcuts that are always right at your service.

I've just recently started using a Mac after decades (shudder) of using Windows, and one of the things that has been driving me crazy is the way the mouse moves. Over the years I've used lots of different Windows mouse drivers, some of which included an acceleration function. In fact, I believe mouse acceleration is built right into Windows XP, though it's easy to turn off.

On the surface, mouse acceleration is a good idea. It allows you to travel across a relatively large amount of screen real-estate with your mouse with a relatively small (but quick) flick of the wrist, while still giving you a high level of accuracy when moving the mouse slowly.

My problem is that in OS X (Tiger) the acceleration is set by default to be fairly aggressive, and there's no way to turn it off. As if feeling like I don't know my way around a new operating system isn't bad enough, this default mouse behavior makes me feel like a complete newbie.

I googled around a bit, and at first it looked like the only solution would be to purchase a 3rd party set of mouse drivers. However, there is a free solution, but it's not going to sit well with you Apple / Mac purists. If you download Microsoft's Intellimouse drivers for Mac OS X, you can have the choice of using OS X's default mouse behavior, or using the Intellimouse settings, which severely cut back on the acceleration levels. You still get the advantage of increased accuracy at slow mouse speeds, but for the way I typically use a mouse, I'm able to be quick and accurate again, and I can stop worrying about where the speed barrier is that is going to launch my mouse pointer off into next week.

This is one of those tips that is probably only going to appeal to the new "switchers" out there like me, or maybe those that work on both Windows and Mac machines, and want more uniformity with respect to their mouse movement. But I tell ya, this simple mouse driver makes using a Mac infinitely more pleasant for me.

Oh, by the way... in true Microsoft style, installing this mouse driver requires a reboot. Who knows, maybe that's actually OS X's fault, but it seemed a tad ironic to me.