This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about design, business, experience, simplicity, the web, culture, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago. Visit the Product Blog for more information on our products.

terminal: iTerm (http://iterm.sourceforge.net/)

browczar: fFox

dbuggr: Firebug Beta (you have to get it from getfirebug as plugin updates only work for release versions)

EDITOR : TM

isabella: MBP

customer support: SproutIt

hosting: Rimu

Rats! All my hard returns didn’t come thru on that post; let’s try again. sorry.

-text editing: bbedit

-ftp: interarchy (auto upload feature is wonderful for webmasters) & transmit

-email: mail & spamsieve (absolutely wonderful; almost 1000 spams a week, only 3 false positives and 1 negative in 2 months)

-mysql gui: cocoamysql (beta works with newer mysql versions)

-organization: I’d be lost without Adobe Bridge; how else can I keep a disastrous desktop with 400+ items and still be organized? Bridge is probably my favorite program. Apple should build that kind of finder viewer into OS X .

-hardware: 23” cinema and a dual g5

-printer: Epson 7600 with archival inks (we recently upgraded to archival) and finally, we can offer archival prints on Resist Today

-email newsletters: mailchimp; it’s a little pricey but I found the interface to be easier than campaign monitor. some day I’ll setup Dada mail and we’ll go the free route.

-web host: xilogix; super-fast dedicated servers. nothing like 600kbs thruput to your web site. And the new Plesk 8 backend is wonderfully easy (and finally works well in Safari).

Text editing: TextMate, XCode

FTP : CyberDuck

Graphics: Photoshop and Aperture

Email: Mail

Hardware: A Mac Pro and 24” Dell monitor, and a PowerBook G4 when on the go

Frameworks: Rails, Dojo

Webhost: Varies

Other stuff: Parallels, NewsFire, and I’d be lost without iTunes and my iPod.

Initial Coding: BBEdit

Graphics: Photoshop (Slantmouth logo in Illustrator)

CMS : Wordpress

Hosting: Dreamhost

Traffic monitoring: Mint and Crazy Egg

FTP Client: Fetch

I don’t see what the deal with iterm is. Tabs are nice but it is lacking a lot of useful features from Apple’s Terminal (eg the keystroke configurations)

Text: Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition (lousy name yeah), concidering upgrading to Standard edition since it’s more customizable.

Graphics: Adobe Photoshop CS2 , ImageReady

Print: Adobe InDesign CS2

Customer support/email/scheduling: Microsoft Outlook 2003

DB: MySQL

Browser: IE7 , IE6, Firefox 2, Safari 2

Invoicing: Custom app. that integrated with InDesign

E-mail newsletters: Custom app.

Backup: Custom app./scripts-mix

Frameworks: ASP , custom

Doctype: 4.01 strict

HTML / CSS / JS – Aptana DB Graphics – PS Hosting – A Small Orange Traffic – Google / Crazy Egg Project Management – Basecamp Long Distance Voice – Skype

http://blog.layer22.com/2006/12/10/my-development-tools/

Hardware: 20” Intel iMac Text: BBEdit FTP : Transmit Graphics: Photoshop CS2 Browsers: Safari, Firefox (and all of the Windows browsers as soon as I install Parallels and XP) CMS : Depends, but I prefer ExpressionEngine Host: Depends

Coding: TopStyle Pro Graphics: Photoshop CS2 , Maya Image optimization: PNGGauntlet CMS : WordPress Traffic: Google Analytics Hosting: A Small Orange FTP : FileZilla Collab: IRC , Teamspeak, Ventrilo, Skype

Coding: TopStyle Pro Graphics: Photoshop CS2 , Maya Image optimization: PNGGauntlet CMS : WordPress Traffic: Google Analytics Hosting: A Small Orange FTP : FileZilla Collab: IRC , Teamspeak, Ventrilo, Skype

Editor – Textmate Browser – FireFox FTP – Transmist Project Management – Basecamp Terminal – Terminal.app Mail – Mail.app Database GUI – CocoaMySQL

Firefox 2.0 for development. IE 7 .0 to check pages display OK. Firebug for debugging JavaScript and AJAX . Web Developer Toolbar for CSS checking, HTML Validation, and many other things. CuteFTP for FTP . UltraEdit for editing. File Locator Pro for file searching (invaluable when you have 1000’s of JSP files).

Adobe PageMill 2.0 (Macintosh) I use this jack-of-all-trades to take every project from start to finish. Indispensible. Adobe, are you listening? Bring it back in Creative Suite 4!

Editor: Textmate

FTP : Transmit

Project Management: Basecamp

Billing: Blinksale

Mail: Apple Mail

Host: Engine Yard

keeping stuff together: I sorta hate to mention it to y’all, but I’ve been in the process of moving my ‘keep it together’ stuff from Backpack to Curio It’s far better suited to how I think, and any files that needs to be portable live on a flash drive.

illustration: Lineform has all but replaced Illustrator for me.

color-blindness sanity-checking: Sim Daltonism is small, free, and does its job admirably.

css monkeying: CSSEdit gained a new layer of awesomeness with v.2

invoicing and inventory management for my manufacturing business: a custom-built rails app that I, someone who had only really dabbled in programming with Filemaker before, was able to build myself. Thanks for such an awesome tool with rails.

Compy486 – Monkey, Dell20 Text/Coding – TM, Xcode CSS – CSSEdit2 Images – PS + Ill, toying with Lightroom Browsers – Safari, Camino, FF2 , IE6, IE7 via Parallels Planning – Paper, Pencil, xScope DBs – MySQL (w/ CocoaMySQL), PostgreSQL (w/ PGAdmin3) (S)FTP – Transmit Misc – iTunes

Timetracking = Harvest

I know, I know: “Tracking time is a waste of time. Things either get done or they don’t. If they don’t, everyone knows about it.” – JF, Jan 2006

But ever since we started tracking time with Harvest I have to disagree. In our case (web development shop juggling dozens of hourly-billable clients) it is actually the problem that sometimes stuff was getting done and no one “knows about it”—IE, our billing wasn’t accurate and we were eating the cost.

I use harvest to account for everything I do, and it really helps me stay task-oriented without the F-ing interface making me insane. (Like previous time tracking software that will go unnamed …)

All text editing: Textmate

Firefox

Hosting: Dreamhost

Mac, Apache, PHP , MySQL: MAMP

Adobe Stuff

FTP : Transmit

CMS : Textpattern

Text editor: vim Email: ThunderBird and Outlook Express Browser: FireFox and IE7 Hosting: WebFaction Source code: Subversion

Everything I use is listed on my profile on iusethis.com.

Anyone else using iusethis? Great site.

Mac OS X / TextMate / Lighttpd / MySQL or SQLite / Python / Django / Firefox / Mail

Browsing & testing: firefox, opera, ie Text editing: vim and e (a windows editor which use textmate bundles); Email: gmail and yahoo mail beta; Term: windows power shell GTD : yahoo calendar and notes Collaboration: campfire, google docs Widgets: yahoo widgets Music: yahoo music jukebox

Browser: Firefox Work Email: Mail Other Email: Google Mail for you Domain RSS : Newsfire Chat: iChat A/V with Chax (tabbed chat!) Images: ImageWell

We use Joyent’s Connector hosted application. It’s not quite changing the way we work…yet. But they keep making it better under us.

Browsing: Firefox Text/PHP/HTML: PSPad eMail: Gmail Host: Media Temple RSS Reader: GreatNews CMS : Drupal Mind mapping: MindManager CSS coding: Style Master Traffic monitoring: Google Analytics GTD app: MonkeyGTD Download tool: DownThemAll [firefox addon] Bookmarking/Clipping: Net Snippets StartPages: Netvibes & OriginalSignal

How about survey tools? What did you use for the customer satisfaction survey?

Editor: Emacs Source Code Control: Arch OS: Debian

Besides many of the OS X tools listed above, I use Gone Raw to make sure I’m eating the kind of food that will allow me to stay creative, productive, and healthy all day. Never underestimate the power that your diet has on your mind and body!

email, webmail and outlook

web dev asp.net 2.0, sql server 2005 visual studio pro 2005 php and asp classic in dreamweaver or assorted text editor depending on the computer I am using.

Photoshop and Fireworks for images Flash for illustration

Backpack for getting things done (to do list and notes etc).

IE developer toolbar and firebug for Moz stuff. Someone really needs to port webkit and web inspector to windows.

os x, fireworks (8 and the CS3 beta), dreamweaver, adium, basecamp, virtual pc (because ExactTarget’s application only works in IE), iWork, iLife,

Another resounding “Yay!” for Firebug. I can’t imagine life without it. And I feel I need to rep my text editor as I haven’t seen it posted here… JEdit. yes, it’s a Java app but the plugin options are vast which make customization for your language/IDE preferences easy.

Hardware: MacBook Pro 17” and PowerMac Dual 2.0ghz G5 with dual Dell 2005fwp 20” monitors

Editor: TextMate Browser: Firefox FTP : ncftp database: PostgreSQL 8.2 Version Control: Subversion Billing: Blinksale

For our upcoming app, Convos – Building with Flex 2 with (fingers crossed) Amazon EC2 /S3 for hosting / storage. On the marketing side / business side – Blog: Squarespace, Graphics: PhotoShop, Video: Final Cut Pro, Video Hosting: MotionBox, BrightCove, YouTube. 2 of us are PC users and I am a PC/Mac user so we have an interesting setup.

For Markup: skEdit

Web Graphics: Macromedia Fireworks (yes Fireworks) & Flash with a peppering of Illustrator & Photoshop

Version Control: Smart CVS

Chat: Adium

Testing: Any browser I can get my hands on, IE6 & later

Font Management: Linotype FontExplorer X (free AND kicks the crap outta Suitcase

Validation: Firefox HTML Validator & Web Developer Toolbar, CSSEdit

Somewhere I read this: “For keeping people organized we use Sunrise.” and that linked to a post titled: “Sunrise: 37signals’ CRM tool for small business is coming soon”(Dec 05)

I wonder what that was all about?

Oh come on, somebody had to mention it!

I use bits and pieces of whats mentioned above. The one tool I use that hasn’t been mentioned already is Scribes Scribes ~ TextMate for Linux.

It’s not really TextMate for Linux, and there are some peculiarites with it. But its stable, free, and still in active development (i.e. getting better, not just getting stable).

Project Planning and Diagramming: Line Rider

Code Editor: Wrieboard

Communication: Wikipedia + Telephone (I leave messages at the bottom of seldomly edited pages and then call people and tell them to go to the page to get the message)

I know what many of you must be thinking: How do you get any work done? The way I see it, it’s not about getting things done fast, it’s about making it difficult for your successors. Complexity = job security. I’m not that smart so I have to do something.

I smoke some dro when I’m doing finances, snort the white when i’m crunching to program.

The rest of the time I keep it lean up in my cup.

Oh com’on Jason…

“It’s the most useful product we’ve ever built and I can’t imagine us getting work done without it”

You guys used IM before Campfire.

Text editing: TextMate

Organizing my work: OmniOutliner

Bug Tracking: 16bugs...love it! But then again, I developed it… ;)

Technical Support: Gmail and TextExpander

For app development I use Ruby on Rails, through RadRails on windows. I’ve got Console for command line stuff. Our host is the always in style Rails Machine.

We use Basecamp for project management.

And of course we use our own doodlekit for our web hosting, blog, forum and portfolio gallery.

MacBook Pro (C2 Duo)

Basecamp Backpack Cocoa MySQL Runtime Revolution Photoshop OmniGraffle Firefox Textmate Path Finder (tabbed browsing in the finder saves a lot of time) ScreenSteps iChat Mail Transmit Parallels (I can’t believe how well this works)

Here’s a couple of apps that we couldn’t live without that haven’t been mentioned yet:

Customer support: HepSpot

Bug Tracking/Project Management: Jira

Editor: Smultron has most of the syntax-colored, snippet-y goodness I require.

(S)FTP: CyberDuck plays well with Smultron and other editors.

Ruby/Rails updates: DarwinPorts releases more often than Locomotive, which would otherwise have been the kick-buttest OS X Rails development option.

Project wrangling: Backpack (did I really need to provide a URL for that one?).

Basic money oversight: Wesabe is new, but has already replaced my old manually-download-and-reconcile methods.

And a PowerBook G4 to push the electrons through.

As a side note, how can anyone stand iTerm? It seems slower and shabbier than Terminal.app, and darned if I can figure out how to set the font defaults. (Not flamebait: I’d really like to know what people see in it, and what I’ve been doing wrong with it.)

Doh! That link for Smultron should’ve been to here.

Sales Leads / Expense Tracking / Invoicing / Proposal Sending = LessAccounting.com Project Manager = Basecamp Graphics = Photoshop and Illustrator HTML = Textmate

os: OS X with the mac terminal browser: firefox with firebug extension editor: textmate or vim email: gmail for your domain bookmarks: delicious writing/collaboration: writely/google docs reminders: backpackit

haven’t seen anyone link to this yet:

backups: amazon s3 (with jungledisk for personal files) news: original signal

Code: BBEdit 7 Graphics/Images: Photoshop CS / Illustrator CS Browser: Safari FTP : Transmit 3.5 E-mail: Mail w/ SpamSieve Font management: Font Book RSS : NetNewsWire Lite

And last but not least:

Playing Nintendo: Nestopia :)

Smultron rocks. Textmate sucks. Debate.

I’ve got a list I keep (somewhat) updates on my site: Personal Information Infrastructure.

Mostly your basic OS X software, pretty much the same stuff everyone else here is using, with a brief mention of a few Windows things I keep on a USB drive just in case.

Have: Dell 6000 / Windows XP / TextPad for HTML & CSS / IE7 and FF2 .0 / MySQL & SQL / PHP & ASP .Net / Photoshop CS2 / Blinksale, Basecamp, Gemini / Wordpress & DNN

Want: MacBook Pro / BBedit / Better CMS / Coghead / ...BMW

HTML /PHP/Javascript : textMate/BBEdit CSS : CSSEdit/Xyle Scope Image: PhotoShop/Illustrator IA : OmniGraffle Photo : Aperture/Picasa Browser : Firefox Hardware/OS : MacBook running OS 10 .4.8 & Windows XP Font design : FontLab CMS : Drupal/Menalto gallery/Joomla/ FTP : Transmit/Cyber Duck Email : Gmail RSS : Google Reader

Editor – SubethaEdit (Jedit on linux and win) Framework – Ruby on Rails Source Control – Subversion with Versionshelf FTP – CyberDuck MySQL – YourSQL Computer – Apple MBP ... lot’s of gnu tools and other open source stuff

Python, Django, Eclipse+PyDev+Aptana Firebug Scintilla (editor) Subversion CVS Yahoo IM (a lot!) Wordpress

SQLite (development) MySQL (deployment)

Compaq NC6000 (but I don’t particularly like it) Acer 3002 (but I don’t like it!)

E-mail: outlook, documents: office, ide: visual studio, database: sql server, web server: IIS , chat: trillian….........take that!

Launchy.net for Windows. Best thing ever.

Project Design: Enterprise Architect Project Management: Basecamp currently Coding: SciTE, Visual Studio 2003/2005/2005 Express (also VIM , PHP Designer, Dreamweaver, Eclipse variants) FTP /SSH: FlashFXP, PuTTY, whatever comes with bash Graphics: Paint Shop Pro, Illustrator, Photoshop, GIMP Languages/Technologies: PHP , C#/.NET/ASP.NET, JavaScript, Ruby/Rails (also Java/JSP, C/C++, Perl, VB.NET, VB6 , VBscript, ASM , Lua, Python, Delphi) Database: MySQL, SQL Server 2000/2005 (also SQLite, PostgreSQL) Web Server: Apache, IIS (also WEBrick, Tomcat) Web Debugging: Firefox 2 w/Firebug 1.0 beta, IE6 /7 w/Microsoft Developer Toolbar (Firebug wannabe, close enough) Documents: Office Operating System: Windows XP (also Ubuntu) Blog Software: Custom once I have the time to put together a website ;)

On my shopping list: MacBook Pro (w/Parallels and TextMate), Windows Vista (Home Premium or Ultimate, haven’t decided), Microsoft XNA (free, but time to play with it is “on my shopping list”)

...and for the record, C# with the .NET Framework alone makes Windows XP a better operating system than OS X :D (Can’t wait to try out OS X w/Parallels with that new window encapsulation stuff though once I get the money to buy my MBP )

Editor: UltraEdit Web tools: Firebug, Web developer toolbar, Google notebook Collaboration: CampFire Version control: SVN FTP : WS_FTP (oldie but a goldy) Screen grabs: WinSnap DBAdmin: MySQL Yogger General server control: Webmin

Cheers…

BTW , I wonder why you guys aren’t using rails for your blog? Is it inferior to Movable Type for this kinda task?

Carl, They have their own blog s/w they are running this site with now.

Original post:

The Design and Development team at uses the following…

Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, rSpec!, TextMate, Basecamp, svnwatch for rbot, IRC , and of course… Dialogue-Driven Development!

Carl this is a rails app I think. They changed it a while back I seem to recall.

OS: Debian GNU /Linux Machine: PowerBook G4 15 ” 1.67/1Gb Editor: emacs 21 Graphics: Inkscape + GIMP Browser: Firefox/Iceweasel 2.0

Everything else I use is from Debian.

Some well kept secrets of the trade:

SQL : SQLYog

Regexp: RegexBuddy

FTP : RightLoad: RightLoad

I use, love and highly recommend Crimson Editor. It does an excellent job of staying out the way. Although it lacks some features that would be nice, the basics are nailed.

It seems to be out of development, as the last update was September of ‘04, but I’ve never had any problems with bugs. Check it out.

Email\Database: Lotus Notes

Text Editor: TextPad

CSS : TopStyle

Accounting: QuickBooks Online

Project Management: BaseCamp

Images: PhotoShop

Holly cow – is that another reference to Sunrise CRM I see?

Where is Sunrise now – been keeping a whether eye out for the mythical beast. So it appears you are working on it internally.

How long before release to an adoring public?

DEVONThink an amazing MacOS information manager

Curio and OmniGraffle for visual thinking and mind-mapping

Blinksale for invoicing

Basecamp (duh)

Daylite for CRM (at least until you guys release Campfire, and maybe even then)

Wordpress

Last but not least: MacOS X on my 12” PowerBook (with the 20” Cinema Display when I’m at home)

I meant until you release Sunrise (not Campfire) of course.

I’ve done a list like that some time ago: http://caffo.backpackit.com/pub/836037

Editor : gvim Development tools : GNU toolchain, MS Studio. Cygwin Lanuage : c, tcl, perl Bug tracking : Gnats Email : Outlook with Microsoft exchange Browser : Firefox OS : Linux, Windows Misc. TeraTerm, Softice

i’ve posted the same list around a month ago.. :)

Desktop Based Apps.

Web Based Apps.

I sinned by not mentioning version control in comments.

It’s CVS !

i use my head most of the time (as in thinking, banging it, resting it) note: i don’t mean it is an useful resource, but it is a resource i use recurrently. note2: it counts as software after all that banging…

then i use: subethaedit, quicksilver (like a madman, it won’t stop quitting unexpectedly, pity i’m not a good crash report sender), kGTD, OMNI (they’re sweet!), textmate, voodoopad, .Mac, CSSedit, basecamp, flash (but i don’t like it anymore), illustrator (and i love it, more than photoshop), proteus (more professional and “to teh point0xz” than adiumx, imho, and yes, it lacks stuff that will come), skype (if possible, i keep all my professional IM there, pity history sucks after two weeks of itense communication with any party, but file transfers smoke out every other app, and i work remotely), ssh, my webserver and many ftp accounts, transmit, finder, bosco screenshare (one excelling gem on the “you’re such a newbie, that is so easy, lemme control your screen for a bit and i’ll show you” realm) and my mouse (that counts as software after all the banging it gets)

ah, and Safari, of course (typographical bliss among brute online type-rendering browser beasts)...

TextMate, QuickSilver, Basecamp, Subversion, iTerm, AdiumX and Opera (browser & e-mail).

Editor: e text editor (textmate for windows)

Graphics: Xara Xtreme

Version Control: TortoiseSVN

I’ve just read the post “The tools we use to run and build 37signals” (03 Jan 2006).

For running your blogs you use Movable Type. You “don’t have time or the need to build something custom — that would be a waste of time at this point.”

Your reply leaves me very puzzled.

According to a popular Rails screencast it is possible to create a complete weblog engine with comments and an administrative interface in 15 minutes.

Are you so busy?

Here is the list from a 3rd world geek ;) http://www.web2media.net/laktek/2006/12/15/the-tools-i-use/

Text editor: EditPlus Browser: Firefox 2.0 (+ IE for cross-browser checking) Communication: Gmail Projects mngt: Tada lists – yep, that’s all :) ... only small projects so far Photo editor: PaintShopPro Utilities / FTP : Total Commander Version control: SVN

IDE : Eclipse (PHPEclipse and other addons) Editor: EditPlus Frameworks: Custom, QCodo (moving everything to QCodo in the future though) RSS : SharpReader Graphics: Photoshop, Fireworks Hosting: ServInt Email: Outlook (I don’t like it but haven’t found anything better) Browser: IE7 (+FF and Opera) Distro: Fedora Core DB: MySQL ORM designer: DBDesigner FTP (or rather SCP ): WinSCP Personal organisation/planning etc: FreeMind

Muji notebooks and a Waterman refillable fountain pen.

Favourite environment: System: MacBook running on OS X Tiger, since yesterday with a 120 GB harddisk.

Editor: TextMate, Web framework: Rails, DBs: SQLite & PostgreSQL, Programming language: mostly Ruby, Browser: Firefox, E-Mail client: Thunderbird, Version Control: Subversion, Webserver: mostly Mongrel, Presentations: Keynote, Office programs: Neo Office or OpenOffice.org, Other tools: Quicksilver to find & start programs using the keyboard, Instiki for a number of wikis, Skype for VoIP, GraphViz and ImageMagick/RMagick…

And a few more…

CMS : drupal

Open Office for word processing and Presentation…

I’m suprised that no one mentioned Notepad++. It’s good, and it’s free:)

Editor: Textpad

Desktop Win32 Development: Borland (Codegear) Delphi

My Zune

Media Center Edition of Windows to record and watch Robot Chicken and Aqua Teen Hunger Force when I need to decompress

XBox 360 when I need a break from coding but don’t want to get sleepy.

Red Bull when I need to wake up.

Subversion for source control.

Computer: Apple powerbook

RSS Feeds: NetNewsWire Lite

Web: Textmate, Cyberduck, Subversion and svnX, Firefox with Firebug and Web developer, CocoaMySQL, Fireworks, CakePHP, Drupal

Organising myself: Make lists of tasks using OmniOutliner, then track time using Office time.

Health: AntiRSI.

We use LAMP + (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP , lighttpd) extensively. For developers, we use EditPlus as editor, TortoiseSVN as version control, Putty as SSH client, and a bunch of computers/browsers to test our GUI .

Am I the only one who loved reading Svante’s comment near the top, “Doctype: 4.01 strict”?

Estimates/invoicing/payments/time tracking: Cashboard

Project Management: Basecamp

Editing: TextMate

SQL Admin: Navicat (for mac!)

Image Manipulation: Photoshop / Illustrator / Suitcase Fusion

Terminal / Instant Messenger: iTerm / IRSSI / Bitlbee

Email: Gmail / Entourage (because it syncs with my Treo)

Web Search: http://www.mrsapo.com

vim, Perl, Apache, mod_perl, Gantry, Firefox, and PostgreSQL.

You guys are so generous.TQ

JF: “Sure, but it didn’t do what we wanted. That’s why we built Campfire.”

Can you be more specific? IRC and the occasional adium tend to handle most things I want…just wondering what functionality others use that i don’t.

JF: ahh…ok. We also use wikis and what not, but I can see how a unified application for that could make sense.

I use:

Web-hosting – Jumpline.com – although at the moment I do not make use of their many applications Publishing – Blogger, using a non-Blogger template and CSS (I did plan to move to Wordpress, but now used to Blogger and I like it…. even though the uploads can be slow). HTML editor – NVU Graphics / logos – Photoshop FTP – CoffeeCup Free FTP

I am still quite new to this game, so will take on board some the the above advice. Want to try out Writeboard as I have heard good things about that.

Cheers,

Jon.