Just made the switch

Hey everyone, I just made the switch from PC to my new powerbook G4, and i gotta say i wonder why i didn't do it sooner. This thing is incredible. I love OS X, it is so nice to use an OS that is secure and stable. I can't believe i put off the switch for this long.

Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself. I am an assistant engineer at a recording studio, and the mac fits my needs perfectly.

Also I was wondering if anybody knows of a website that provides some cool freeware. Just wanting to take a look at what i can get for free before i start dropping cash on software.

Thanks

Studiorat said:

Also I was wondering if anybody knows of a website that provides some cool freeware. Just wanting to take a look at what i can get for free before i start dropping cash on software.

Thanks

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Try this site: http://www.macupdate.com/

It's main purpose is to find every single updated program for Macs every single day. Not only that, but you can download the freeware (as well as the shareware and the demos). Come to think of it, I guess it only finds the updated free stuff for Macs.

Anyway, you'll want to set up an e-mail account. Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and some other services provide a "freemail" account, but obviously they're not great. (Then again, I'm guessing you already knew that). Apple comes with a program called Mail, but the best mail program out there is Microsoft Entourage. Unfortunately, it costs, as it is part of Microsoft Office. Still, if you want an instant messaging program, it's gonna be inferior to its Windows counterpart (except for iChat, which really has no Windows counterpart except for AIM).

Nightblade said:

Try this site: http://www.macupdate.com/

It's main purpose is to find every single updated program for Macs every single day. Not only that, but you can download the freeware (as well as the shareware and the demos). Come to think of it, I guess it only finds the updated free stuff for Macs.

Anyway, you'll want to set up an e-mail account. Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and some other services provide a "freemail" account, but obviously they're not great. (Then again, I'm guessing you already knew that). Apple comes with a program called Mail, but the best mail program out there is Microsoft Entourage. Unfortunately, it costs, as it is part of Microsoft Office. Still, if you want an instant messaging program, it's gonna be inferior to its Windows counterpart (except for iChat, which really has no Windows counterpart except for AIM).

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Hey nightblade..... if i purchase de OfficeX package i'll be able to use Entourage? Another thing........ how convinient the .mac is?....i noticed you'll be able to use a .mac e-mail account, along with a lot of other very interesting and cool things......is this .mac e-mail worth it?.....

Joeytpg said:

Hey nightblade..... if i purchase de OfficeX package i'll be able to use Entourage? Another thing........ how convinient the .mac is?....i noticed you'll be able to use a .mac e-mail account, along with a lot of other very interesting and cool things......is this .mac e-mail worth it?.....

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Yep, you get Entourage with Office X. However, just recently (like a couple weeks ago) Microsoft came out with the new Office 2004 for Mac (although they don't have a version yet that comes with Virtual PC, as Virtual PC 7 is still in the make). Office 2004 doens't improve a WHOLE lot over Office X, but it's still pretty cool. In fact, you can actually download a 30-day trial of Office 2004 from Microsoft's website!

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downlo...ice2004.xml&secid=120&ssid=1&flgnosysreq=True

If you're curious about the new things in Office 2004 to Office X, look around that part of the website. It's the official one, anyway! I personally haven't downloaded the trial yet, and I'm not sure if I will. I already have Office X, and if I forget to give up the trial by the end of thirty days...Well, it will probably warn me, but I don't want to take the chance that it won't. It just doesn't seem necessary for me. It would be too complicated.


Now, as for .mac, I've actually heard really good things about it. With it, or with an AOL account, you'll be able to take advantage of iChat on your computer (presuming you have Panther. There is one for Jaguar, but it's not as advanced, and it costs money nowadays.). You'll also be able to use the iDisk, a feature which allows quick file transfer between computers, sending files of up to 20 MB! However, when Google's Gmail comes out, iDisk (and everythign else) will seem kinda worthless, since Gmail will offer 1000 free MB of space, at no price! Yes, .mac costs. However, you can get a free 60-day trial of it. When it expires, you just think of a new e-mail address, and keep getting free trial accounts. So essentially, you won't have to pay for it. The only disadvantage to this idea is that you'll lose all your data from your old .mac account when it expires. And unlike most freemail services, you can only have one account at a time on .mac.

Take a look here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=34287

http://www.mac.com/WebObjects/Welcome

http://www.versiontracker.com

that's a good one too.

Yep, versiontracker is useful too. Still, I think that versiontracker is overrated and macupdate is underrated.

Studiorat said:

Hey everyone, I just made the switch from PC to...

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One of those beauties?

Nightblade said:

Try this site: http://www.macupdate.com/

It's main purpose is to find every single updated program for Macs every single day. Not only that, but you can download the freeware (as well as the shareware and the demos). Come to think of it, I guess it only finds the updated free stuff for Macs.

Anyway, you'll want to set up an e-mail account. Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and some other services provide a "freemail" account, but obviously they're not great. (Then again, I'm guessing you already knew that). Apple comes with a program called Mail, but the best mail program out there is Microsoft Entourage. Unfortunately, it costs, as it is part of Microsoft Office. Still, if you want an instant messaging program, it's gonna be inferior to its Windows counterpart (except for iChat, which really has no Windows counterpart except for AIM).

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Also try http://www.versiontracker.com.

EDIT: Whoops, someone beat me to it. I gotta learn to read _all_ of the posts! hehe

go with the versiontracker.com

MacUpdate.com never seems to be worth my time, that and the owner is a #%$@!!!!

www.macshareware.net is pretty special as well.

Graphite said:

go with the versiontracker.com

MacUpdate.com never seems to be worth my time, that and the owner is a #%$@!!!!

www.macshareware.net is pretty special as well.

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Yeah, I love VT. MU looks and feels like a copy of VT. And VT has been around longer. The only thing I don't like about VT? You have to pay for some advanced features that MU has free (the desktop client for example)

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