Arranging the time and place to contemplate, compose, and write is my biggest challenge as a writer these days. Avoiding endless clicking on the Internet is my first challenge, but not the only one: the modern computing environment is a distraction in itself. Fortunately, a growing number of software packages have come on the market to emulate the kerosene-lamp distraction free writing experience I enjoyed in Indonesia (minus the kerosene). This article takes a look at them.

It wouldn't be stretching the truth too much to say that Copywrite sold me a Macintosh. It's that good. Copywrite was made for the creative writer. It is "missing" things you'd expect from other word processors, like the ability to make tables and so on, but that's not Copywrite's intended audience. Copywrite is for writers, and as creative writing software goes, it has no equal.

Mac OS X is the most satisfying compromise I've ever come across in the computing world: Unix underneath and Apple's slick attention to detail and the end-user's experience on top, all built on the top-quality hardware for which the folks at Cupertino are famous, my Powerbook G4 became a fast friend and a faithful ally. For a Linux user, experiencing a computing platform where everything just works is pretty stunning, and as an added bonus, most of the software I grew to love on Linux is available for Mac OS X as well through the Fink project. Here are a couple of my favorite tweaks: