First time Mac User, Looking for some assistance

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I just bought my first Mac. It is the MacBook Pro :
13-inch: 2.4 GHz
2.4GHz dual-core
Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1

I was hoping that some experts in the Mac field could give me some tips on any software that I should install on my new Mac. I was given "Trend Micro Smart Surfing for Mac". I wasn't sure if I should install that or not. Any advice, tips, tricks, or anything like that would be appreciated as I am not familiar with how to use this Mac yet. I will mainly be using this when I travel to watch movies, access email, and use the Microsoft Office products(I bought this software for Mac).

Thanks and looking forward to learning.
 
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MacBook Pro 15" 2014, 2.2GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 250GB SSD, OSX 10.9.5 - iPhone 5s 16gb
Welcome to Mac-Forums danzangaro

I would make you first port of call to the Switchers Hangout. Check out the stickies at the top of the list including Sage Advice for the Mac Switcher etc there is alot of very helpful advice in there.
Switcher Hangout - Mac-Forums.com
As for programs you want to install, I can't really help there. My advice would be to explore your Mac for a while, there are alot of useful apps installed already. Once you know what is on there then you can assess what kind of apps you want/need.
The Mac App Store installed on your Mac is very useful for discovering new apps too.

Hope this helps

- Simon
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MacBook(3,1): C2D 2.2ghz, 4g RAM, 10.7.5; iMac(12,1): 2.5ghz i5, 16gb RAM, 10.9.1; iPhone5S iOS7.04
Programs to install? Well...here are a few that I can't be without:

- LibreOffice -- a lot cheaper than Microsloth Office and iWork (can you say "free"?) and almost 100% compatible
- LogMeIn.com Free -- great for accessing computers remotely.
- Firefox -- Safari is too slow and overblown for my own taste.
- CyberDuck if you do FTPing
- Audacity for sound editing
- Toast Titanium -- much more flexible than iDVD and iTunes for burning DVDs and CDs.
- VLC to watch just about any format video you can think of
- Max for CD ripping (NEVER trust iTunes to rip CDs without errors!) and audio conversion. (Oh, how I wish Exact Audio Copy were available for Mac...)
- Ya GOTTA get XCode if you plan to learn how to program for the Mac.
- Do you have a Java instructor like mine who recommended downloading the Eclipse IDE via BitTorrent? Use Vuze. Really good, full-featured BitTorrent client with a good search engine.
- iPartition if you ever decide to partition your drive with multiple formats -- Mac, Linux, Windows, etc.
- iDefrag -- I don't care what ANYBODY says, if your drive isn't an SSD you WILL eventually need to defrag the thing. iDefrag is worth the investment.
 
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Does anyone feel the necessity to install any kind of Internet security or anti virus?

I used Firefox on my last PC, and would like to use it on my new Mac, but I don't want to install anything that will slow it down.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MacBook(3,1): C2D 2.2ghz, 4g RAM, 10.7.5; iMac(12,1): 2.5ghz i5, 16gb RAM, 10.9.1; iPhone5S iOS7.04
AFAIK, the only antivirus that exists for Mac is to remove Windows viruses from, say, Word files shared back and forth between users...the Windows viruses wouldn't affect your Mac, but they'd remove them so that when you send the file back, it won't be there.

heh...when I went to Best Buy to get my iMac a couple of weeks ago, of course they offered the Best Buy protection plan, and I asked what it entails and how it's different from Apple Care. The lady mentioned that their plan includes virus removal, among other services. Of course I very smugly said, "Uhh, this is a Mac. This is virus protection at its finest!" That and that I'm also a computer technician probably made her hate me because I knew the stuff better than she did. :)
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro 15" 2014, 2.2GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 250GB SSD, OSX 10.9.5 - iPhone 5s 16gb
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Your Mac's Specs
15" MB Pro, 2.66 i7 ; 11” MBA 1.8GZ i7; 13"MBA 2GZ i7 8 GB mem 512GB SSD, 2 iPad3s, 1 iPad Mini
Whatever software you use now

A word processor, perhaps database and spreadsheet. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote pretty much handle normal business as well as personal needs. Firefox is a bit controversial on Macs, research that. Safari works fine as does Google Chrome.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Best office suite is Office 2011 and if you feel you must run AV software coming from the Windows background, download and install ClamXAV which is freeware. If you use Windows on your MBP consider Microsoft Secuirt Essentials, also freeware.

Also go into Safari Preferences > General and make sure 'Open safe files' is NOT selected and Block Popup Windows is.


http://www.clamxav.com/
 

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