Alright, my MacBook is ordered and on it's way, should be here tomorrow. I think I've got most of the basics down by talking to a few friends I know with Macs but you guys probably know better. My friend is gonna lend me the "Missing Manuals" book for Snow Leopard so that should be most of the OS questions covered. I pretty much just need info on things like the best programs/applications/accessories, the most popular and useful websites etc... stuff the book wouldn't mention. Who wants to go first?
Useful ones I use are Pages, Keynote [basically iWork, but I don't use Numbers] xPad [notepad app] Uhm..Adobe Reader for .pdf's, Zipeg is good for .zip files, uhh..All I can think of. Oh, and you'll iPhoto
I have like 3 minutes to write this, so I'll just go through useful stuff in my Applications folder Adium - IM client Backblaze - Cloud HD backup Cyberduck - FTP Client DOSBox - DOS Emulator, for old freeware games Dropbox - File Sharing FFmpegX - Video converter GIMP - Freeware Photoshop GrandPerspective - HDD visual mapper Inkscape - Vector Art LieroX - Worms 0 Nethack - midiStroke - MIDI input -> Keyboard NeoOffice - Freeware Office Pixen - Pixel editor smcFanControl - Control Macbook fan speed TextWrangler - Notepad +++ Tyrian - VLC - Media Player Perian - Quicktime SuperCodec
My only 2 recommendations are: Microsoft Office - I can't live without it. This is what I'd call essential. Hand Brake - Great for ripping DVD's Good luck!
Heres some sites that you should take a look at for useful apps: http://usingmac.com/2009/12/15/50-beautiful-mac-applications http://www.bestmacsoftware.org/ http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/100-free-useful-applications-for-mac-part-i/ http://botw.org/articles/mac-freeware-apps.htm http://www.mactricksandtips.com/2008/01/top-100-essential-mac-applications.html http://osx.iusethis.com/ http://www.apple.com/uk/downloads/ some apps that i think are useful: transmission - for torrents amsn - msn messenger isquint - video converter vlc - universal video player skype frostwire - its basically limewire google earth mozilla firefox - i prefer safari gawker - you can make cool timelapse videos with the isight liquidmac - download it, it will make you happy that you bought a mac remote pad server - you can control and view all the files on you mac from your ipod unrarx - unarchiver iwork microsoft office fetch art - finds all the album artwork for all your songs on itunes insomniax - prevents your mac from going to sleep What macbook did you get and what are the specs
Mplayer OS X Extended is the best media player by far. It's all the awesomeness of Mplayer with a very slick frontend. Transmission and uTorrent (beta) are both nice bittorrent clients. I use uTorrent but a lot of people prefer Transmission. iStatMenus is a fantastic tool which lets you monitor CPU load, RAM, and a bunch of other things in your menu bar. Google Chrome (beta) My favorite webbrowser. TweetDeck A very slick Twitter client, if you're into that sort of thing. Gonna emphatically second Adium. It's an amazing multi-protocol chat client. I wish it existed on other platforms.
The stuff I use the most is... wow, not that much. Limewire (or Frostwire, really doesn't matter). Pixelmator (cheapest and greatest after photoshop) GameSalad (not really essential). Vuze (I've gotten sooo many movies with this). Pixen. Handbrake. Jing (again, not an essential, but great for screenshots). Audacity (again, something I use).
Adium - IM chat program accesses most IM clients MacTheRipper - Still the best for ripping DVDs and storing the complete VIDEO_TS file onto hard disk Handbrake - Best for converting VIDEO_TS into iPhone format. "Universal" settings seem to be the best going. Firefox - Just because its an alternative if you happen to dislike Safari (which I personally love) Google Picasa - For those who have to have photos stored in tree directories rather than a nebulous iPhoto Library giant file. DiskRing or Disk Inventory X - Checks out where all your disk space has gone, where and what those files are, etc) Skype - Now has video conferencing enabled for OSX SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner - Backup your hard disk onto external drive, so you can boot from that disk if internal one ever dies. I think now supports booting via USB as well as Firewire. UnRarX - RAR achive opening/storing TimeMachineEditor - Change the Time Machine backup schedule to anything other than the default per-hour cycle that TM uses. Flip4Mac - If you really need to view WMV files... ClickToFlash - Uses Placemarkers where Flash is used.... click to view it when you need it. Lovely. VLC Player - Practically plays all video formats Perian - all-in-one codec package WriteRoom - blaks out the entire screen so you can focus on what you want to write, rather than get distracted by bouncing apps, pings etc. In all honesty, one reason why this list is rather short, is because the standard apps in OSX already cover most of my needs already. Since you're switching, also check out how to use the Migration Assistant to help to move your files etc to your Macbook. IIRC, just boot up the Macbook on the first time, and follow the few steps on the screen. I recommend using CAT5 network cables plugged into both Mac and PC to speed up the process.
Regular 13" MacBook. 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 250GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard disk drive
I think that's the one I have too EDIT: Oh, and use iTunes Visualizer when you're playing music, its so sick.
I can't use a Mac without LaunchBar installed- http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html or there's Quicksilver which is a free, although much lamer alternative- http://www.blacktree.com/ Also, you'll want to replace your 2GB of RAM with 4GB of RAM ASAP, especially if you plan on doing anything in Garage Band. It will be a pretty substantial upgrade, and replacing it is very easy you just need a size 0 screwdriver and somewhere to put the half dozen or so screws that keep the bottom plate on without losing them.
Eh not that bad actually I thought it'd be more. If it's going into my Mac, I gotta go with brand name What's a good brand?
