Must have Mac Programs?

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Hello!

What are some of the must have/good to have mac programs?

Since it's been only a few hours since I've decided to seriously use Mac (and only started using mac about a week ago, few formats later and everythings working fine) and I would really like to know what's good/what other people have!

I have currently installed on my Leopard 10.5.2 machine;

Firefox 3 Beta 5
Office 2008 (and latest updates)
Latest Mac Updates

What's next?

Adobe programs?

Other programs?

Torrent programs?

IRC programs?

p2p programs?

syntax highlighting programs?

Please give suggestions!

Thanks in advance,

Panarchy
 
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How do you mean Adobe programs? Adobe do all sorts of software so it really depends on what your requirements are and how much you have to spend. Do you want to edit photos? Create pdf files? Design websites?
 
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By Adobe programs I mean, all I know about Mac programs is;

a) theres a version of office for it
b) there are a few hacking tools for it
c) it's based on UNIX
d) it's made by Apple
e) Firefox makes versions for it
f) Adobe make software for it

And I do want dreamweaver and photoshop...
 
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It really all depends on what you want to do. If you are into video editing, your Mac should already come pre-installed with iMovie, but if your more serious into it like me, I'm a indie film maker, I would suggest Final Cut Studio. Quite pricey, but definatley worth it.
 
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Adobe do make excellent software plus they support OSX well, although their software can be pricey. For example Photoshop CS3 is fantastic for image creation & editing, but costs a whopping $649. But if all you want to do is to tweak photos, etc. then Photoshop Elements at $99 may be a better bet.

My personal list of Mac 'fave' software (that doesn't ship free with OSX) is:
  • Firefox
  • VMWare Fusion
  • NetNewsWire
  • 1Password
  • Office 2008
  • Aperture
  • iStatMenu
  • ChronoSync
  • Adium
  • EyeTV
  • TrueCrypt
  • Transmission
 
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MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz, 4GB memory, 160GB hard drive, Leopard, 20" Widescreen Samsung Display
Don't forget Flip4Mac if you ever intend to run any Windows Media,WMV files.
 
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Quicksilver
CoverSutra
Transmit
VoodooPad
iSale
Skitch
Subethaedit
Transmission
 
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Your Mac's Specs
15" Matte Macbook Pro 2.5Ghz 4gb RAM 250gb HD, 60gb iPod Classic maxed, iPod shuffle
flip4mac
firefox (add ons: adblock, foxmarks, .com fixer)
adium (for iming)
alarm clock (to wake me with my itunes)
appcleaner
cube 2 (an incredible, free, mac os game - check it out if you're into gaming)
google earth
insomniaX (to keep my computer from going to sleep while lid is shut)
pandoraboy
parallels (to run a VM of windows XP)
solitaire XL
songbird (beta but awesome way to discover new music)
stuffit (for extracting compressed files)


thats pretty much it for me...never really got into onyx since there is spotlight but if anyone could describe why people think its so amazing, please do.

Hope that helps
 
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LittleSnitch.

Tells you what programs try to connect to the internet, and allows you to decide whether or not they do.'

NeoOffice

Free, albeit somewhat unpolished, office suite for mac. Based on the OpenOffice.org code. I started using this after discovering that it's somewhat better with backwards compatibility than Office 08. Added bonus: it's stable as rock, at least in comparison with Office 08. And it supposedly has some VBA compatibility.

Quicksilver

Already mentioned, but this is a great program. It's an app-launcher and much more. Saves up a lot of Dock space, and is simpler than using the Dock much of the time.

Fink and Macports

Lots of great ports to Mac of open source programs. Requires some use of the Terminal though, so if you're not into that might as well leave it alone.
 
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why do you want "hacking" tools for your mac? there are hardly any for mac, most are linux ports
 
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By Adobe programs I mean, all I know about Mac programs is;

a) theres a version of office for it
b) there are a few hacking tools for it
c) it's based on UNIX
d) it's made by Apple
e) Firefox makes versions for it
f) Adobe make software for it

And I do want dreamweaver and photoshop...

The best hacking tool that I know of for Mac is Vim (actually, I use MacVim...I like the pretty GUI :) ) http://code.google.com/p/macvim/
 
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You should all check out a program my professor just emailed me.

It's called "songbird" and its awesome...its a music app where you can hear lots of new music
 
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2008 8-core mac pro. 4GB RAM 1.5TB storage. Dual LCDs (one IPS monitor for the colour).
Quicksilver and Finderpop.

Actually just Quicksilver. Finderpop would be just perfect for me if I could've had it go to my Places rather than just my desktop and processes because expose does a better job.
 
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Mac Studio, M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD
Here is my list of Mac "must have ware":

Menu Meters (http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters): this indispensable program places a variety of real time updating meters into your menu bar, for things such as CPU use, disk use, internet up/down rates, memory usage, etc. It is very configurable and because these meters live in your menu bar, very unobtrusive. But the information is always there when you need it. I could not live without a real time view of CPU usage in particular. It is frequently the first indicator that something is happening on your Mac that you were not aware of.

iClock (http://www.scriptsoftware.com/iclock/iclockmac.php): Another menu bar addition. This one expands the normal day and time display into something much more useful, by adding the full date, various formats for the display, and multiple font selections (color too). In addition, it provides a whole host of other goodies, such as world clocks, calenders, task switchers, and so on. Very, very useful and very attractive too.

Classic Menu (http://www.sigsoftware.com/classicmenu): Classic Menu lets you build a cascading program launcher, just like Macs used to have under Mac OS "Classic" - hence the name. Think of it as the equivalent of the Start menu on Windows, or the launch button on any Linux distro. It is fully and easily user configurable. As an added goody, it lets you replace the drab monotone Apple symbol in the upper left of your menu bar with a variety of different color treatments, including the multi colored original Apple logo. This all by itself is worth the price of admission in my mind!

iStat Pro (http://www.islayer.com/index.php?op=item&id=7): this is THE definitive system monitor widget. It lets you view CPU usage, memory usage, CPU temperatures, GPU temperatures, fan speeds, internet usage, etc. etc. etc. Don't leave home without it!

OnyX (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11582): OnyX is a system maintenance and tweaking utility. There are several tools in this class, but OnyX is my personal favorite. Run OnyX's "clean up" routines once a week or once a month or so, and you Mac will continue to run like new. You will generally notice a speed up in your subjective experience of the Mac's performance after running OnyX, although the next boot after an OnyX run takes longer because OS X has to repopulate some caches.

Xee (http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/xee.html): simply the best (IMHO) image viewer for Macs that is available. Xee is a purpose built viewer, not an editor. This is not a graphics editing program such as iPhoto. Instead it is an image viewer. It has the happy capability as well of being able to start anywhere in a folder of images and go back and forth amongst the images without you preselecting which ones you want to see. I *wish* Preview would do this but it does not. Xee does it with grace and style.

Smultron (http://smultron.sourceforge.net): simply the best general purpose text editor available for Macs today (again, IMHO). Simple intuitive multi file support, easy to use, attractive to look at, stable, fast. An excellent product.

iGlasses (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16105): this is like the Preference panel for your iSight camera that Apple inexplicably does not provide. It lets you adjust the brightness, contrast, color settings and so on. It also provides lots of clever effects that you can apply. However, for me, the big ticket item is that it lets you adjust the iSight so that you get a decent picture in lower light situations.

Skype (www.skype.com): Pretty much everyone knows about Skype. Free video calling that is cross platform. The Mac version is excellent and lets you video call your friends on both Mac and Windows. There is a Linux version as well, but I have had only limited luck with it.

...and finally...

NeoOffice (www.neooffice.org): this is the best freeware office suite available and is a great alternative to MS Office. It has a very high level of compatibility with MS Office and has components for all of the big programs: Word, Excel, Powerpoint. There seems to be only one downside to NeoOffice, and that is that it is slow to launch. It has been that way for years. If you are a Linux user, check out OpenOffice on openSuSE 10.3 though (NeoOffice is the Mac port of OpenOffice). It launches with eye-popping speed. I think they are preloading it as part of startup. I can't explain it any other way.

There you go - my list of "must have ware" for your new Mac.
 
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Here is my list of Mac "must have ware":


iGlasses (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16105): this is like the Preference panel for your iSight camera that Apple inexplicably does not provide. It lets you adjust the brightness, contrast, color settings and so on. It also provides lots of clever effects that you can apply. However, for me, the big ticket item is that it lets you adjust the iSight so that you get a decent picture in lower light situations.

Great find with iGlasses! I never knew such a product was available for the iSight camera. I really needed it since my Mac is located in an area where the lighting isn't all that great.
 
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isn't iGlasses shareware?? and the interface isn't all that great...
 
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Work Related:
Office 2008
Concept Draw (Visio like tool)
Steelray (MS Project like tool)
PhotoShop
Remote Desktop Connection (remote to Windows PC's)
Adium (like Trillian / IM client)
SnapZPro (video/image capture)
Flip4Mac (Media player)
Skype (phone calls)
Parallels (or VMWare Fusion)
Transmit (FTP)
Stuffit (old Zip type client)

For Fun:
Transmission (torrent client)
DivX converter
WoW
EVE Online
MPEG Streamclip (video compression/converter utility)
iStat Pro

Those are my primary applications.
 
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isn't iGlasses shareware?? and the interface isn't all that great...

Yes it's shareware ($9.95). Is there anything better out there?
 

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