Feb 19
ecto - A Mac OS X Desktop Blog Authoring System
I’ve been using Windows Live Writer on a Windows box to prepare blog entries, for the last week or so. In that time, I’ve been looking for a desktop blog authoring system for my iMac, but much like everything else I’ve found for a Mac, they come with a price tag.
Windows has its faults, to be sure, but there sure is a lot of freeware available for Windows-based computers. Let me see, I can run a completely free installation of Live Writer on a Windows computer, or I can pay $17.95 to purchase ecto for my iMac.
ecto seems to be highly rated, but I’m going to step right up and say it looks like a skeleton, compared to Windows Live Writer. LW snags a blog’s theme, so you can see how an entry will appear, as you are preparing it. ecto provides a quite Spartan, e-mail type interface for entry. I think I’m going to be very happy this is a free trail of ecto, because I can see myself moving back to Live Writer in short order.
Actually, I can see this being my first and last Apple computer, as this iMac hasn’t really shown me much. Ubuntu Linux is just as simple to use and offers at least as many features. And there’s something about the price tags on Linux scripts and programs that really has me questioning the expense of the iMac. I’m not into graphics work, so I think the power of the iMac is going largely untapped on my desk.
It’s a pretty sad day when a Windows application outshines anything else, but facts are facts. My next entry will be prepared in Live Writer.
