New Software questions for new Mac user

R

roxster

Guest
So I finally made the switch to apple last week and got the new iMac G5 17".
I am pretty familiar with macs, as I used my father-in-laws G5 "dome" at his home quite a bit.

Here is what I have:
  • Toast 7
  • Office for Mac 2004
  • VPC7
What are some definite must haves for mac?
  • Should I use Entourage, Mac Mail, or Thunderbird?
  • Why would I need to d/l FIrefox? Safarai seems good.
  • What do I use to open db files?
  • dotMac? Useful for backing up? Worth it?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz (June 2004), 2.5GB, Airport, black 5G iPod 30GB, white MacBook 2.0 2GB
First, welcome to the Mac world, and welcome to the forum.
I can answer at least 2 of your questions, though the answers are simply my own opinion.

Should I use Entourage, Mac Mail, or Thunderbird?
Personnally, I use Apple Mail, because it has the best integration into OS X, and has all the features I need. Entourage, well, it is an MS product, and like every MS product for Mac it is slow, buggy and misses features that are available in the Windows version (Outlook)...enough reason for me not to use it. Thunderbird is what I used (and still suggest) on the PC, but I prefer Apple Mail.

Why would I need to d/l FIrefox? Safarai seems good.
I use Safari all the time, and I like it much better than Firefox, for the same reason I mentioned above for Mail. I do however have Firefox, just in case I might end up on a site with which Safari has problems. Doesn't happen very often, but it happens.
 
OP
R

roxster

Guest
Thats how I figure, but just coming from the XP black hole, I wasn't sure if 3rd party software was any better than what is included in OSX.
Thanks for the welcome.
 
OP
M

Miles_Teg

Guest
I'm a recent "switcher" myself. Enjoying my new 17" iMac as well. I'll give you one of my favorites below - nothing like it on the PC side:

(1) Quicksilver - it's a Launcher application - but you have to try it to really understand it. Believe me, in no time you'll be CTRL-SPACE'ing all your applications. Something to note - when you set it up it scans and indexes your whole system - so be patient. I believe the website is blacktree.com - but Google Quicksilver - you'll find it. (btw - it's free! - but definitely worth a donation).
 
Joined
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Your Mac's Specs
17" Flat Panel iMac -15" 1.5GHz, 80GB HDD, 128MB ATI video card, 1GB RAM- PowerBook
Should I use Entourage, Mac Mail, or Thunderbird?
Personnally, I use Apple Mail, because it has the best integration into OS X, and has all the features I need. Entourage, well, it is an MS product, and like every MS product for Mac it is slow, buggy and misses features that are available in the Windows version (Outlook)...enough reason for me not to use it. Thunderbird is what I used (and still suggest) on the PC, but I prefer Apple Mail


Please only comment on things that you are experienced with using. Entourage is on par with Mail, believe me, Mail has its problems and will seem like a step back from Outlook or Outlook Express. Apple Mail is nice because it integrates with iCal and the Mac address book but Entourage and its latest update fixes quite a few gripes that most have and works rather well. If anything, you should download the trial and test it for yourself so you can see what Apple Mail is actually missing.
 

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