02-28-2009, 06:19 PM

Hi all,

As I'm fairly new coming back to apple (hadn't used apple computers since the apple II line), and I'm wondering where are good, safe, reputable places for getting freeware/shareware/demo software?

I've been browsing macupdate.com and macgamestore, but began to wonder - how safe is the software here? and are there other places that are relatively safe to get software for my mac from? I'm not looking for any warez/cracks/etc. - just places where I can get legit freeware/shareware/demo/purchase software that I don't have to hold my breath as to if it's gonna try to hijack my system.

Thanks in advance!

02-28-2009, 06:46 PM

MacUpdate is good along with VersionTracker. Also try Apple Menu > Mac OS X Software...

02-28-2009, 06:50 PM

Thanks for the tip - I hate to say it, but my mac won't be here until monday night =( I had been experimenting on the one at work and decided I wanted to make the switch, so I had been looking for software over the weekend to have ready to start using. Since I don't have the mac at home, can't use the menu yet, but definitly good to know when I have it in front of me!!

I already have a licensed copy of Outlook2Mac and vmware fusion (there is some software on my pc I can't afford to replace atm, so I figured I'd just virtualize it until I can afford to get the mac versions).

02-28-2009, 11:38 PM

Most all Mac software sites are safe. Most certainly I've installed at least 500 pieces of software in the last couple of years, although most of them stay for less than 2 days. There are only a couple of trojans currently being passed about on: A. illegal/pirated software and B. certain "video codecs" some porn sites ask you to download. Stay away from these and you're pretty safe.

The software sites to stay away from are the video/audio ripper sites that have 20 different versions of the same program and want $20-$30 for each individual codec. They're all ripoffs.