Just Bought A MacBook...

Mat T · Post by **Mat T** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 5:38 pm 0

I am completely new to all of this stuff. Does anybody have any pointers, key software, tips I can look at to get up to speed on all things related?

Thanks in advance!

leekfiend · Post by **leekfiend** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 5:40 pm 0

Get Fire for doing instant messaging, it rocks.

http://fire.sourceforge.net

skip · Post by **skip** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 5:54 pm 0

Unfortunately I think Fire has ceased development due to the dominance of Adium...

MegaZoid. · Post by **MegaZoid.** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 7:09 pm 0

I got a mac and if you realy cant find a certain piece of software for the mac which is out on the pc, just download parallels and have a windows xp/vista cd ready you can then switch bettween mac osx and xp/vista on the fly.
It just works

pogo · Post by **pogo** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:08 pm 0

It depends what you want to do with it. It comes with a lot of useful apps, e.g. I use iPhoto for all my digital camera pictures, iTunes, Safari, iChat, Preview, TextEdit, XCode, QuickTime, Terminal. Other free stuff I use I've downloaded, including

VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
NeoOffice: http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php
Flip4Mac: http://www.flip4mac.com/
GoogleEarth: http://earth.google.com/
HandBrake: http://handbrake.m0k.org/

and other more obscure stuff, mostly found after a few minutes web search.

The only stuff I've paid for recently are games,

iPulse: http://iconfactory.com/software/ipulse
& QuickTime Pro: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/mac.html

Though I'll probably get OS X 10.5 when it comes out.

tufty · Post by **tufty** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:18 pm 0

XCode is good, especially if you have a (free) Apple Developer Connection account, but for most of the stuff I''m doing these days, all my editing gets done using TextMate. It's really worth it. Oh, and Pathfinder kicks Finder's arse into touch.

Both are shareware, both are worth their weight in gold.

TextMate at http://macromates.com/ and Pathfinder at http://www.cocoatech.com

Post by **RiK** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:45 pm 0

Another vote for Pathfinder here, it's awesome.

amanset · Post by **amanset** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 11:11 pm 0

The only thing I haven't found a decent equivalent for is Microsoft Money. Quicken is shit and doesn't seem to know that there are bank account in other currencies than USD, so I am trying to make do with iBank. It isn't as good as MS Money 2001, which was what I was using before, but it does enough.

Mat T · Post by **Mat T** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:28 am 0

Awesome guys, thanks a lot. A good a start as any.

Governmentyard · Post by **Governmentyard** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 1:04 am 0

Windows XP is pretty good

Post by **Snakey** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:43 am 0

goatboy wrote:Windows XP is pretty good

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:50 am 0

Free stuff:

Sharepoints - lets you easily share any folder on your Mac over the network via either AFS (Apple File Server) or SMB (Windows Samba). Ensure you enable "Windows Sharing" under "Sharing" in System Preferences. Disabled when complete.

Remote Desktop Connection for Mac - Connect to Windows PC's via RDC on your Mac.

RDC Menu - Used with the above. Gives you an icon near your clock to easily launch RDC for Mac, and you can have more than one connection going at once.

VirtueDesktops - Gives you multiple desktops with 3D-switching effects. No longer under development, but it's relatively recent and still works.

Chicken of the VNC - VNC client for Mac. Connect to other PC's running a VNC server.

OSX VNC - VNC Server for your Mac. Let others connect to your Mac remotely using VNC.

AppDelete - Lets your remove "most" of what a program installed on your system. I've had 50/50 luck with it leaving bits and pieces behind from time to time.

Someone has mentioned Fink to me before. It's a gentoo/debian-like package management system for your Mac. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but it's suppose to be REALLY good when you want to inventory everything that gets installed on your system. For power-users only, of course. Better and more powerful than AppDelete, I would assume.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:58 am 0

pogo wrote:NeoOffice: http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

Seconded. Though, it's not a good as Office 2003, and not nearly as good as Office 2007 (mainly from a UI perspective). Gets the basics done with minor annoyances here and there.

NVU is a free FrontPage-like HTML editor for Mac/PC/Linux too. I've had mixed results with it.

skab · Post by **skab** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:28 am 0

Dave wrote:OSX VNC - VNC Server for your Mac. Let others connect to your Mac remotely using VNC.

Ahem...

Prefs -> Sharing -> Apple Remote Desktop. Includes a VNC server out of the box. Seems to be one of the best kept secrets of OS X. Everybody seems to think, oh, I don't have that Apple Remote Desktop software, so I will just deactivate that and never look at it again

tufty · Post by **tufty** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:04 am 0

Dave wrote:Someone has mentioned Fink to me before. It's a gentoo/debian-like package management system for your Mac. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but it's suppose to be REALLY good when you want to inventory everything that gets installed on your system. For power-users only, of course. Better and more powerful than AppDelete, I would assume.

God, I loathe fink. DarwinPorts, too. They both store stuff in nonstandard places, and the majority of opensource stuff compiles without a hitch on OSX. For stuff that's a bastard to install (I'm looking at you, LaTeX and ImageMagick), there's iInstaller, which is a bit confusing but installs stuff to the "standard" location (/usr/local)

Other good stuff:

Gimp.app Sounds like Gimp for OSX, and so its (although it requires you to install Apple's X server)

For emulatory goodness:

Mame : Take your pick from :
MacMame - no updates since early 2006, mame 0.103 only
SDLMame intel builds, use with MacMameInfoX
Mame OSX

Also, check http://emulation.victoly.net for other emulatory stuff

Simon