08-17-2007, 11:48 AM

I've recently been thinking about how I use my Mac a year after switching, and it struck me that although I love OS X, I still have one foot in the Apple camp and the other firmly somewhere else.

Web Browser

So, Safari vs the rest. The very first thing I did when I gt my brand new MacBook last year was to go to Mozilla.com/firefox, download my favourite browser and import my PC bookmarks. I barely gave Safari a sniff.

Since then I have used Camino, Opera, Firefox AND Safari. When push comes to shove, only Firefox has the stability and customisation I love. Safari's pop-up blockers are not flexible enough, the ad-blocking mini-apps are no where near as good as ad-block on Firefox and there are still sites here and there that don't play nicely with Safari.

I use Firefox

Mail Client

From about 1996 to 2000, I used Outlook. Then I switched to Thunderbird, and then again in 2005 I went back to outlook. When I got the Mac, I checked out Mail, but it immediately seemed basic. I like the smart folders (which are an extension of OS X), but the interface is quite ugly, IMO. As I had office 2004, I tried Entourage, and I have never looked back. Despite the lag (it runs on Rosetta), it just offers far more features, looks nicer and in some ways is more intuitive if you come from a Windows background. Can't believe I said that, but it's true.

I really WANT to like Apple Mail, and I am hoping Leopard makes things a bit better.

I use Entourage

Address Book and Calendar

See above really. I went with Entourage. Address book is nice, but again too basic. I hardly know where to click on the screen to update a contact sometimes. Entourage offers space for work details, association details, the ability to link a person to mails (even if they are not sending them) and projects, as well as events.

The calendar also looks very professional. I really don't like the way iCal looks.

I use Entourage

Chat Client

I think almost everyone has friends on Yahoo, MSN and AOL or at least 2 of those. So Adium was a great find, thanks to this board. iChat should really be able to do the same thing, but I actually think Adium is beautiful and well made - it has improved a lot from 12 months ago too.

I use Adium

Word Processing

For the last week, I have been using Pages from iWork 08 and Numbers, especially with my work documents. The compatibility is surprisingly good, but the workflow takes some getting used to. I'd really like to see how it deals with some huge documents with 100+ pages of tracking, auto formatting, TOC and automatic headings etc. But so far, it's done ok. It really should save by default to .doc, especially when the document was opened in that way - it would just shave precious seconds of workflows.

Numbers seems ok, pretty good for a version 1.0 anyway. But it seems slow, compared to Excel XP on a Windows machine.

However, already having Office, which I paid a lot of cash for, I don't see any reason to switch over, other than iWork is a lot more CPU and RAM friendly and thus battery friendly because it's universal.

I use Office 2004, but may switch...

iLife

I actually love Quicktime and did even when I was on Windows. Same with iTunes, here I think Apple have it just right. Even QT Pro is pretty good at changing codecs and exporting to different file sizes etc, albeit slightly slower than some other apps. I like iPhoto, but use Lightroom for anything serious. Aperture was slow and didn't deal with my Fuji RAW images very well. I used the demo for 90 days.

I use Logic Express, rather than Cubase, and LOVE IT! As a big time bedroom muso, I'd recommend Logic to anyone who asks. Ableton Live is also great, for slightly different reasons, but I think every Mac Musician should get Logic (either express or Pro). Garage band is a nice introduction too - a lot better than Cubasis.

iWeb is neat - I just love how it can create a photo gallery to upload in seconds. It's easy to get around the .mac tie in too, just by exporting the web and then uploading that folder content using Fetch or something similar.

I have never sued iMovie, but my wife loves it.

For home productivity, Apple has a new fan here!

Home finance

Last but not least... the whole reason I have to give up 8GB of space to Windows, run Parallels and still spend time in Windows at home, is that there is no financial package on the Mac that comes close to MS Money or Quicken Deluxe (PC version).

Quicken Mac - Horrible, slow, featureless, buggy and ugly. no multi-currency support, windows all over the place, lack of support for some of the most popular banks (Chase?) and a list of other insane quirks which makes me think it was coded by Bill Gates himself.

MoneyDance - Nice effort and I love how it is the same on Linux, Mac and PC... however it's a bit ugly and a bit slow, not to mention buggy. If you're not too fussed about workflow or lots of features, it is ok.

iBank - I love it... but you cannot auto download from your bank, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a financial tool. If money dance has had this feature for 2 years, I don't understand why iBank is so far behind. As soon as they do bring it in, I might use this. It's clean, quick and relatively bug free.

So I use MS Money, via Parallels

I'd like to ween myself from MS applications over the next 12 months, but lets see how it goes.

Sorry for the long post, hope it wasn't too boring...

08-17-2007, 12:08 PM

Interesting read, not boring at all. I'm not sure I agree that you have "one foot fully planted somewhere else" though. The only non Mac App is the one you are using via Parallels.

Not using Apples own Apps doesn't make you any less of a Mac user, you simply like what you like. Everyone uses the things they are use to and for many switchers that means things like FF, Entourage, MS Office and so on. As long as you like them and provide you with a better computing experience, it's no big deal. Using an App you despised would make no sense.

08-17-2007, 12:37 PM

It's not like there's a rule that "if you use a Mac, you must use Apple's apps" or something. ;p

The only Apple apps I (regularly) use are TextEdit, QuickTime, and the Finder. (well, not much of a choice there ;p )
For other stuff, I use Microsoft Messenger, Adium, Firefox, Office, Xee, Cog, VLC, etc.

08-17-2007, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Zoolook

I have never sued iMovie, but my wife loves it.

Not boring at all - just shows how much choice a Mac really gives all of us. In fact, I am tempted to try Entourage. I am disappointed that you want to sue iMovie though:

08-17-2007, 12:50 PM

I cannot stand Entourage!

08-17-2007, 01:08 PM

That is interesting, since I am coming up to a year after switching now in September and have had very similar decisions to make.

I can not move away from Firefox as a browser due to the extensions.....

I did find though that Mail is perfectly fine for home use (never purchased Office for the Mac after the trial) with all mails coming in to one Inbox and the smart folders, of course. Would never want to have Mail at work though....

I use Agendus under Parallels to sync my Palm with calendar, addresses and some more and use Skype for the Mac more than a chat software.

For Word processing and Spreadsheets I use NeoOffice, which is great for being free! Have waited for iWork to get a spreadsheet, which has now finally happen.

iPhoto and iMovie are great. Amazing that they are preinstalled when you buy the hardware!

And I finally agree that MS Money under Parallels is a must. Why is there no alternative with that functionality?

I also have Boot Camp for some Windows games.

08-17-2007, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by PapaNoHair

Not boring at all - just shows how much choice a Mac really gives all of us. In fact, I am tempted to try Entourage. I am disappointed that you want to sue iMovie though:

Oh nice typo! Ha ha!

08-17-2007, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by iRock

I cannot stand Entourage!

Why's that? What do you use, I am interested in alternatives. I don't fancy spending $400 on Office 08 and would like to stop Rosetta spinning my fans!

08-17-2007, 03:00 PM

When I started using OS X exclusively I made my self try the built in apps (Mail, Address Book, iCal, Safari etc.) and I really got to like them. I've never used Entourage (I've not even installed it this time round), because the built in apps offer more than I need already, and I enjoy working with them (although the new Mail is ugly ).

I also installed FireFox and Camino but I kept finding myself going back to Safari... it's just my kind of app: simple, elegant yet powerful. The only thing I really needed was AcidSearch (adds unlimited search shortcuts like FireFox instead of Safari's default Google US).

08-17-2007, 03:04 PM

Zoolook, we use iBank... Although I'm not the one in the household doing the banking stuff - so, *sheesh* , can't tell you if it now has the features you are looking for.

I do know this: it was updated earlier this week (or late last week) but on the website there isn't a page detailing the added features or bug fixes so can't check it out for you.

There is also an email addie for you to send to the developer feature requests.

08-17-2007, 03:35 PM

nice read zoolook.

after being a windows user for so long, and one that definitely opted for third party on my home machine (i'm forced to use MS programs at work), i had to try apple's apps before going third party.

s it stands now, i still use safari (in preference to firefox), mail, calendar, and occasionally itunes and iDVD. i do rely pretty heavily on third party apps for a few things... adium of course, xee, smultron, and cog for things apple basically has built in apps for (with OS X or iLife). i also rely on neooffice for all my "officey" work.

oh, and i do have IE. though i didn't load it (a comcast tech did), and i've only used it once. i keep it mainly for the irony.

08-17-2007, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by MacHeadCase

Zoolook, we use iBank... Although I'm not the one in the household doing the banking stuff - so, *sheesh* , can't tell you if it now has the features you are looking for.

I do know this: it was updated earlier this week (or late last week) but on the website there isn't a page detailing the added features or bug fixes so can't check it out for you.

There is also an email addie for you to send to the developer feature requests.

These were the new features

* Improved Applescript support (works better with iBank on iPhone)
* Improved OFX importing
* Improved total % gain/loss calculation in the Portfolio
* Improved compatability with iBank Widget

Apparently iBank 3 is going to be a huge leap. It won some award at the WWDC, but the release won't be until the end of the year. Fingers cross eh?

08-17-2007, 04:20 PM

Doh! I looked everywhere on the iBank website and couldn't see the list of new features!

Good thing I don't drive, hunh?

08-24-2007, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by iRock

I cannot stand Entourage!

Let's see, if you removed four words, you could make your post less relevant. No, wait, it would make it better.

Read the first post. All those words are called substantiation.

08-24-2007, 09:00 PM

I like Entourage mostly because I have gotten used to having my email, calendar, contacts and checklists all under one "roof" and interconnected. Also, I really like the Project Center which I use to organize my schoolwork and interconnect all that activity with all the other functions in the app.

If Apple came up with something that had all their similar apps put together, I would definitely try it, but until then . . .