Complete newbie-Which software? How to map drive?

[markw10]

I have my new C2D MBP on order and am a switcher from Windows XP and am wondering if there's any must have software out there, software that many mac users have. I know with Windows there are a few like this. Of course I know the mac has more built in programs and is easier to use so I likely won't need as many programs to buy.
I am undecided if I'll go with Safari for web browsing or Firefox. As well, for PIM use I'm not sure if I'll use Entourage or ical/address book/mail
What I will get though are Office 2004 since I do a lot of heavy office work as well as Macromedia/Adobe Suites since I do graphic design as well as web design.
Beyond that, I want a program that does good desktop video editing, a good newsgroup reader, probably will get toast platinum.
I will use my mac at home where I also have a home office and it's kind of going to be for all kinds of uses, maybe even a occasoinal game. I just want anything that will make my life even better wtih a mac. it's coming on Tuesday and I can't wait!

One last kind of unrelated thing. With Windows you can map a drive to a server computer. I do have a Windows based computer in my house I use as a server. I hope to switch that to a Mac Pro someday but with Xp I simply map it as a drive such as drive Z. Can I do the same with a Mac? I do have a friend who has one but his only complaint is you can select and log onto a server drive but as soon as you reboot the computer this drive is gone and you have to redo it each time.

 

[dtownley1]

I think you've got pretty much all the you'll need listed; adobe apps, and probably Dreamweaver as well. With all that, and Office, you should be set to get on with work.

One thing I frequently do, is visit sites such as versiontracker.com, macupdate.com and one advertised here recently, mac.sixfiles.com. When you need other apps, those are great places to look.

I should point out that windows media player for mac is pretty horrible. Flip4mac will allow you to play .wmv files through quicktime, and stream through safari (using quicktime) I only discovered it recently, but it's been a huge help for me. For other media players, VLC is good (you're probably aware of this) and I use MPlayer for .avi playback. There are divx and/or 3ivx codecs that you'll need if you want to play avi through quicktime and frontrow.

I recently came across a nifty app called Sidenote, which is a handy alternative to Apple's Stickies app.

There are numerous other topics like this in this forum, so do a quick search and you'll probably come up with a few. They'll have all sorts of other apps which will make your mac experience even better

I'm not too sure about the server question, so sorry I can't help out there. But I have a feeling your friend might be right - you may need a login each time you wish to connect to a server. That's how it is at my uni. If you eject the server, you'd need to log in again. Logging out/restarting/shutdown will obviously require the same thing. I don't know if there's a way around that. At my uni, it will prompt you for a password automatically, so it's not too bad.

Hang in there til Tuesday and enjoy your mac!

 

[markw10]

Thanks! That response helped a lot. I already downloaded the files to my server so I can easily use them when I get the Mac!

 

[novicew]

Here are some of the most commonly used Apps.

Connecting to a server on startup is certainly doable but I don't know the exact steps. You can do it using a startup script(cron job) / Apple script.