Mac Must Have Programs

dafuser

dafuser

Land of Confusion
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
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...
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 :D
 
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).
 
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... !!!!
 
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...

:eek:
 
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!
 
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.
 
programs i would have a hard time doing without -

stuffit/stuffit expander - for zip and other compressed files
ptah - for sequential viewing of images
graphic converter - image manipulation and conversion - one of many poor man's photoshop
iphoto and IOXperts USB still camera - for downloading and organizing my digital photos (i have a cheapie camera that isn't supported by apple's image capture)
icab - my personal favorite browser - fast and efficient and it isn't m$ or aol (omniweb is also nice). unfortunately i need to keep ie around for my bank and other institutional sites.
appleworks - apple's version of office, not quite as heavy duty but does everything i need, including a decent graphics app that i sometimes use for supplimentary manipulations.comes on some macs and not on others. it does translate enough office versions to be useful for file sharing.
grab - osx utility for screen captures
klondike - gotta have my solitaire fix
mail.app - i don't care what anybody says. this is a great free mail reader that comes with os x
diskwarrior/plus optimizer/techtool pro/drive 10 - contrary to popular belief, fsck is not enough for heavy duty repair and maintainence. all of these have come in handy at one time or another. i avoid anything norton
toast - i agree, it's the best for cd burning. macs don't have packet writing so you might not get all the features you are used to with nero.
itunes - for music. ok, i could live without itunes, but's it's free and works great. why should i?
broadband optimizer - speeds up internet connections for my dsl. more of a haxie than an app and it's free.

other apps i like but could probably live without -
hogwasher - usenet and text email reader. the best for what it does
ViaVoice - voice recognition. i haven't been using it much lately, but it really works once you get it trained to your voice. I expect to use this alot once i start in on my next set of projects.
quicken - finances. i'm still too broke to update to an os x version but this one came free with the mac, so i like it.
TaxCut - doing your taxes is easy with this one.
snak - i don't chat much, but when i do, i find this client easy to use.
 
Menubar PTH utils: PTHCPUMonitor, PTHiTunesNotifier, PTHClock and PTHPasteboard - a must!

Neat network monitor: 'Net Monitor' from Guy Meyer, also a must have.

Developer/coder program: jEdit (a little slow, but powerful, extensible and multiplatform).

Fink/FinkCommander: if you want to easily install UNIX stuff.

Just to name a few that have not been mentioned.

dani++
 
I stumbled upon this app some how in my early days but I really really enjoy it.

It allows you to create virtual desktops in OS X, doubling your screen realestate.

CodeTek VirtualDesktop.

the free version allows you to use two virtual desktops. Registering allows many more.

I used to use virtual desktops a -lot- in my Linux days and got hooked. Glad to see a way to do this on the Mac.
 
Most of my suggestions have been said already by the others ... ;)
So it seems most "musts" are personal
I would feel bad without:
-notes ( i have notes 1.3.4) ... that's a notepad, i can have many pages in it, it still supports text formatting and images - i use that to store the texts i need to cut and paste many times or in many apps or that are generally handy to have around.. far better that notepad n windows ;)
-bbedit (get the light version free if you don't need e.g. ftp in it) - a good text (html etc) editor. some have suggested me to move to emacs, so i'd probably suggest (i try that as well) something of emacs family - maybe carbpn enchanced emacs
- for ftp i'm quite happy with fbrowser lite. (use a hotmail or use and throw account if there was a registration)
-something to graphics. photoshop -OR- macgimp. if you don't need photoshop a lot the gimp version of it could be worth trying.. you'll get that from www.macgimp.org - if you install that find first uninstalling instructions (or list of files it creates). also, get ImageIndexer (look for that in the forum, i have put a link to the newest release of it, or get from versiontracker ) - that resixes images or folders of images to the size you like and creates a index file to them - that's a must (and free) that saves a LOT of time instead of scaling pics in photoshop.
-if you use more than one messenger (= aim yim icq msn irc) you might like a multimessenger. so the alternatives are Fire and Proteus. I use fire but it's a bit ugly, yet better that that all those services separatedly.
-appleworks. if you didnt get that you might like www.openoffice.org - a free and lighter but good office alternative (i try keep my mac M$-free. i have only internet exploiter that i use only if i have to)
-chimera. go with the nightly builds (if you have a dsl or faster) that's THE browser.. fast, kewl, tabbed etc
hm.. i thnk those are about all in my must list.
 
BBEdit is an excellent text editor/html editor: http://www.bbedit.com/products.html

RBrowser is a good FTP client and file browser (shows invisible files in the Finder): http://www.rbrowser.com/DownLoad.html

Adobe Acrobat Reader is a must: http://www.adobe.com/

VueScan for scanning in images: http://www.hamrick.com/

Mozilla for surfing the internet: http://www.mozilla.org/

DesktopCalendar. Sorry I don't have the link.

GraphicConverter. Check http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/ and search for the program.

X48 is a Hewlett Packard HP48GX calculator emulator: http://www.markus-fritze.de/x48/

Locator finds files in about 1 to 3 seconds: http://www.sebastian-krauss.de/software/
 
Flame is a multiclient chat server that works with AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, IRC, etc, etc. and is free...
Click to expand...
Isn't it Fire, rather ?

For font management Suitcase is the only way to go... Font Reserve really blows...
Click to expand...
I personnally hate Suitcase because I couldn't get it to work on OS9. FontReserve is a fine solution IMHO.

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...
Click to expand...
a pdf document viewer, by default Preview does this job, but i recommend getting Adobe Acrobat Reader
Click to expand...
Acrobat is in OSX already. BTW, it's really heavier than Preview, and slower too in my experience ! Even in OS9 I find it slow.

This thread mentions excellent pieces of software, especially (in my humble opinion):

- BBEdit (everybody likes and uses it)
- Chimera (oh yes it is that fast)
- VueScan (finally ! I can scan in OSX !)
- Toast (I love this one :) )
- iTunes, Mail (well most of Apple's bundled softs in fact)
- Transmit (the best FTP client I found)

I'm not very enthusiastic about:

- GraphicConverter (I prefer using GoldBerg, freeware)
- Acrobat Reader (it's slow but necessary for me - certifying PDF)
- Mozilla (crashy IMO)
- MacGIMP (can't believe it's so powerful)
- OpenOffice (idem)

I'll check my Applications folder now

- ImageIndexer (create thumbnails quick)
- UltraLingua (translating dicts)
- iPulse (see your CPU/disk/etc usage)
- A few haxies (WindowShade, Duality, etc.)
- WebDevil (download whole sites)
- DNS Update (does what it's called)
- Carracho (www.carracho.com, won't say more)

A better to help you would be to give you some company names. the following all develop excellent stuff:

Adobe Solutions
Unsanity
Panic Software
Carracho Communications
IconFactory

Last, a great site for icons: xicons.com
You know about a quarter of my computer life now, and it's not so bad ;).

PS: just watched Ali-G in da House movie... completely stupid, plus, I'm French, some slang English I didn't catch - but the whole was so ridiculous I'm still listening to it in background :eek:

PPS: Oh, oh... We need Labels to survive. Install LabelsX, it's the most vota piece of software around along with the OS9 Finder :eek: :eek: ;) :eek:
 
I second CodeTek's virtual desktop. Once you've had multiple desktops in Linux they're hard to live without.

I can't believe no one mentioned LaunchBar. Best way to launch new programs ever.
 
glad somebody ressurected this thread. i keep forgetting to. i forgot one of the most imortant ones -

Default Folder X - finder enhancement that makes saving and opening files so much easier and more organized. might not help those who only use their documents folder, but for those of us who have multiple drives, this one is a must

and i'll add one that didn't exist when this thread was started -

macosx.com chat client - hey, gotta love it :D
 
- BBEdit (text editor)
- Roxio Toast (CD burning)
- Fire (instant messaging)
- Aquisition (file-sharing)
- An assortment of web browsers: Chimera, Mozilla, IE, Safari, Netscape, Omniweb and Opera.
 
I just ordered Photoshop Elements 2 for editing digital photos. It's $99 retail (and $50 academic!!!!)

I'm sure I will consider this one a "must have" for me.

Doug
 
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