Mac Must Have Programs

[dafuser]

What programs are considered "Must Have" for a new Mac owner? After using a PC for years there are several programs like:

PKZIP (file uncompressor/compressor)
IRFANVIEW (image viewer)
NERO (CD Burner software)
NoteTab Light ( editor)

that I couldn't live without.

What do Mac uses consider as something they / everyone should have?

Thanks

[ex2bot]

Gosh, IMHO about everything I NEED comes with the computer. Stuffit expander, which uncompresses .sit and .zip files is built in to X. iTunes gets heavy use.

TextEdit is a decent basic text editor. Look for BBEdit if you want a heavy-duty editor.

Use 'fsck -y' from single-user (hold command-s when starting up) to check your drive for errors. Keep running it until it ends with the message, "The volume [volume name] appears to be ok."

I am partial to Microsoft Word (BLASPHEMY!), and it is not included.

Finally, I bought Norton Utilities to check and defrag my drive. I haven't had any problems, but people are repeatedly complaining that it is potentially harmful to your data, so you may consider another utilities suite for Mac.

I am also a PC user who has switched and who still uses the PC. Of course, I prefer my iBook. I hope this info isn't too basic to be useful.

[dafuser]

Originally posted by dktrickey
Gosh, IMHO about everything I NEED comes with the computer. Stuffit expander, which uncompresses .sit and .zip files is built in to X. iTunes gets heavy use.

Thanks for the info, sounds like all the basic stuff comes with the Mac.

I was thinking of trying OpenOffice under OS X, it runs well under Solaris and can handle most Word documents. There is a beta version available for OS X. Best of all it's free and uncle Bill won't make any money from me

[t h]

OS X comes with a surprising amount of quality proprietary utilities (iTunes, iPhoto, CD burning software, DVD Player, etc.) as well as some fine open source tools (OpenSSH, OpenSSL, NTP).

It's best to simply start using OS X and search for software on VersionTracker.com and only ask for recommendations when you can't find something specific. Most of the really kick-a$$ open source stuff has been ported to OS X anyhow.

Personally, I couldn't live without Mozilla, GNU Emacs, ncftp, ImageMagick and some miscellaneous stuff like GNU fileutils, qmail, daemontools, AOLserver, ispell, gpg, etc.

There's also a pretty good Gecko-based web browser, Chimera. I'm also using Acquisition (Gnutella client), Neo (Kazaa shadow client), Fire (multi-platform IM client).

[MacLuv]

My favorites so far:

CopyPath... a little helper to copy the full path of the file or folder you're looking at to the clipboard

Chimera... not quite there but most people's default browser here becuase it's not IE...

ChimeraKnight... the AppleScript studio companion to Chimera that manages nightly builds of Chimera to d/l to your navi...

Debate over Transmit right now as it's having a few problems with BBE, but it's a great FTP client and I like it better than Dorothy's Mutt (Fetch)...

A lot of people that switched from OS9 are using ASM, a pulldown menu item that adds OS9 app switching behavior to the system, but oddly enough I don't use it as much as I thought I would... I'm actually using the dock more which is a pleasant surprise...

I'm not using any of the iApps like iCal and stuff because they suck right now... I have Office X installed and Entourage is my default organizer because it's simple and it works perfectly...

Flame is a multiclient chat server that works with AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, IRC, etc, etc. and is free...

For font management Suitcase is the only way to go... Font Reserve really blows...

I also don't use iPhoto, I've switched from Extensis Portfolio to iView Media Pro, which I'm enjoying very much... a lot better than iPhoto...

Preview can be slow looking at PDFs so make sure you get the latest Acrobat Reader... 5.1 just came out so it's a lot more stable on OSX...

Besides the regular heavies, these have been my OSX staples (except ASM which I'm gonna ditch)...

I'm really hoping to find an XSLT parser/transformer designed for OS X... !!!!

[MacLuv]

oh yeah... i'm also using Virex 7.1 "just in case"... i don't trust the old school thoughts of "mac ain't got nuthin' to worry about" considering we're on a Unix core now...

[wiz]

well but the useful utilities would be...


a web server ! ya cool! but the mac comes with that! hey if ur into web development get Dreamweaver MX for macosx, itz cool

Development tools...
install that cd even if ur not a developer/programmer. itz necessary/useful for installing those open source softwares. (you probabley know this already)

a awsome music jukebox, yep iTunes

a useful mail client, entourage, Mail or Eudora, or... sheesh there are so many of them

a pdf document viewer, by default Preview does this job, but i recommend getting Adobe Acrobat Reader

a fast compatible bowser, argh! MS Explorer

a super fast not-so-compatible browser, yeppy Chimera

(i'm talking about compatibility with those large number of plugins necessary to view a few websites)

an instant messenger, there are a couple, but Fire (most reliable) and Proteus (best looking) are the most useful of the lot, since they handle multiple services and add a few features of their own.

an office suite, 2 choices, OpenOffice.org and MS Office X. There are a few other, including apple's own, but these are the most useful of the lot. OpenOffice is a preffered choice but itz not yet a complete suite, as compared to MS Office X. (don't worry, the development on this project is soo rapid, that once it takes off, M$ will never catch up, you probably know that though)

media players...
WindowsMedia player, RealOne, Quicktime
these are the most important ones, to view all sorts of multimedia content.

Download Manager...
Speed Download.

Docks...
Dock Fun and DragThing

FTP client...
Transmit

imaging...
GraphicConverter (useful tool)

AntiVirus Utility...
i'm not sure which one is good,
I rely on Norton AntiVirus

other miscellaneous utilites...

there are too many of them do discuss of.
you can check out some of them at.. apples own website or at version tracker.

And almost forgot ICONs
yep icons, they look so cool on the mac.
iconfactory.com and some other sites have a large number of cool lookin icons you can try out!

[KrinkleCut]

Here's what I use on a daily basis, but of course it all depends on what you use your computer for:

-BBEdit (couldn't live without it)
-Chimera
-Office (using Entourage as my email client - still not wild about any of the mail apps for X. Still miss emailer)
-Photoshop (gotta need this to afford it)
-Toast (nothing is better on the Mac for CD Burning)
-Transmit

Everything else I use daily is pretty much included.