I just got my new powerbook(first mac) and now I'm ready to equip it with all the essential downloadable programs. I've already got limewire, and I tried to get firefox, but it wouldnt work for some reason. So that's where I'm at. Any ideas for programs that all Mac users should have? Thanks!
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Programs for New Powerbook
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So i guess that VLC is the top choice for a media player. How do I make that the default player over quicktime?
Horrortaxi
macrumors 68020
I like VLC for the times Quicktime won't play something. Fetch Art can help speed up acquisition of cover art for iTunes, if that's important to you. A utility like MacJanitor, Macaroni, Onyx, or Cocktail is a good idea. Since it's a laptop you might want to try SideTrack, which is a driver for the trackpad. It allows you to do a lot of crazy stuff like scroll by touching the side of the trackpad. It's beta, so don't expect perfection--but it's still neat.
Apple takes pretty good care of you with what you get out of the box. Is there some specific kind of software you want to know about?
Apple takes pretty good care of you with what you get out of the box. Is there some specific kind of software you want to know about?
Alrighty...let's see here....
*opens application folder...*
Virtual PC, if you've got the extra cash. Just to run those dinky 10-year old apps and confuse the hell out of people when you run Windows 3.1 in full-screen mode on a Powerbook. 😀
Backlight 2, for those neat processor-intensive desktop backgrounds.
Conversation is my favorite IRC App, if you're into that.
Folding@Home is an absolute MUST.
MacJanitor for Cron scripts.
Pic2Icon if you want to make your own Icons.
Uptimeinmenubar
And er...everything else has been mentioned.
*opens application folder...*
Virtual PC, if you've got the extra cash. Just to run those dinky 10-year old apps and confuse the hell out of people when you run Windows 3.1 in full-screen mode on a Powerbook. 😀
Backlight 2, for those neat processor-intensive desktop backgrounds.
Conversation is my favorite IRC App, if you're into that.
Folding@Home is an absolute MUST.
MacJanitor for Cron scripts.
Pic2Icon if you want to make your own Icons.
Uptimeinmenubar
And er...everything else has been mentioned.
Mechcozmo
macrumors 603
Bibliographer. Does bibliographies really nice. I use it quite a bit... 🙂
iComic. Lets you view internet comics! Yay!
iTattle. Shows you all of your network needs, along with quite a bit of info about your Mac. I use it quite a bit.
VLC 2. I like quicktime better, but for those strange and random files, VLC does great!
SimStapler. I love this program, find and try it yourself. 😀 (It is office supply ware, btw... find out what that means 😉)
Virtual PC. I have WinXP (slow as hell) and Win98 (faster than PIII) installed. 😀
Roxio Toast Titanium 5, does everything you could guess for burning but cheaper and (IMO) nicer than version 6.
PiX. Calculates pi. I like to show it off. "I know pi to the millionth place!"
Check out some of the other threads that have software in them. They are rather handy.
iComic. Lets you view internet comics! Yay!
iTattle. Shows you all of your network needs, along with quite a bit of info about your Mac. I use it quite a bit.
VLC 2. I like quicktime better, but for those strange and random files, VLC does great!
SimStapler. I love this program, find and try it yourself. 😀 (It is office supply ware, btw... find out what that means 😉)
Virtual PC. I have WinXP (slow as hell) and Win98 (faster than PIII) installed. 😀
Roxio Toast Titanium 5, does everything you could guess for burning but cheaper and (IMO) nicer than version 6.
PiX. Calculates pi. I like to show it off. "I know pi to the millionth place!"
Check out some of the other threads that have software in them. They are rather handy.
SideTrack (as mentioned previously 🙂
LaunchBar (I run my PB with no dock)
DVD Backup
MenuMeters
FireFox (try it again, it is the best!)
NetNewsWire Lite
Poisoned
LaunchBar (I run my PB with no dock)
DVD Backup
MenuMeters
FireFox (try it again, it is the best!)
NetNewsWire Lite
Poisoned
Quicksilver - http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
Also do a search, there were a couple essential app threads posted recently.
Also do a search, there were a couple essential app threads posted recently.
slooksterPSV
macrumors 68040
If you don't want to fork out the money for Micro$oft office then I suggest downloading NeoOffice, its like OpenOffice, but it doesn't require X11, but I'd probably go with OO because I think panther comes with X11 preinstalled.
dubbz
macrumors 68020
VLC - For movies
MPlayer OSX - Alternative, in cases where VLC chokes.
Adium - For you IM needs. Unless you need voice/video. (Can someone please convince Cerulean to make a OS X version of Trillian?)
Firefox - For browsing. Even if you don't end up using it as your primary browser, it's useful as a backup for troublesome pages.
AbiWord - If you don't want to pay for MS Word.
MPlayer OSX - Alternative, in cases where VLC chokes.
Adium - For you IM needs. Unless you need voice/video. (Can someone please convince Cerulean to make a OS X version of Trillian?)
Firefox - For browsing. Even if you don't end up using it as your primary browser, it's useful as a backup for troublesome pages.
AbiWord - If you don't want to pay for MS Word.
DO NOT INSTALL SIDETRACK
it will mess up your system cause you to lockup when you wake from sleep
it will mess up your system cause you to lockup when you wake from sleep
jalagl
macrumors 6502a
Some apps:
- Carbon Copy Cloner: For making backups to an External HD
- BBEdit: All-around text editor (not free, but well worth the $$)
- DivX Codecs
- Tomato Torrent: For the ocasional BitTorrent
- VLC and Mplayer OSX: To be able to see all types of media files
- CyberDuck: very nice FTP client
- FireFox
- Thunderbird
- MacMAME
- Toast Titanium: Also not free but well worth the $$$
Kingsnapped
macrumors 6502a
mikeyredk said:
Shhh... everybody telling him to get sidetrack is lying... we want his book to freeze up so he keeps coming to the forums. Didn't you read the EUA when you signed up here?
...seriously, I've never had a problem with it, and obviously, none of the other people suggesting it have. Repair permissions, restart, reinstall... you know the drill. Sidetrack is a great utility.
kaylee
macrumors regular
I prefer SubEthaEdit to BBEdit.
I have used both OpenOffice and NeoOffice/J. OpenOffice is pretty ugly and needs X11 (which you can download from Apple). The biggest reason for me to use NeoOffice/J over OpenOffice was support for copy/paste to other programs (which i needed for large code segments from my powerpoint lecture slide for Uni). My only problem with NeoOffice/J was that it takes some time to start up
OmniOutliner and OmniOutliner are pretty good if you need that sort of thing.
I use VoodooPad Lite for all my notetaking at Uni (one page per subject, with a link for each week's worth of work).
Ragtime Solo is a good, free for personal use, replacement for Publisher.
RBrowser Lite is a pretty good FTP client.
HTTPMail lets you check hotmail accounts using the Mail program - latest version has fixed up the few bugs that I have encountered while using it. There was a plugin for gmail as well that I tried, but it just crashed Mail a lot.
I have used both OpenOffice and NeoOffice/J. OpenOffice is pretty ugly and needs X11 (which you can download from Apple). The biggest reason for me to use NeoOffice/J over OpenOffice was support for copy/paste to other programs (which i needed for large code segments from my powerpoint lecture slide for Uni). My only problem with NeoOffice/J was that it takes some time to start up
OmniOutliner and OmniOutliner are pretty good if you need that sort of thing.
I use VoodooPad Lite for all my notetaking at Uni (one page per subject, with a link for each week's worth of work).
Ragtime Solo is a good, free for personal use, replacement for Publisher.
RBrowser Lite is a pretty good FTP client.
HTTPMail lets you check hotmail accounts using the Mail program - latest version has fixed up the few bugs that I have encountered while using it. There was a plugin for gmail as well that I tried, but it just crashed Mail a lot.
Ryan1524
macrumors 68020
-Salling Clicker if you have a BT phone, UIQ phone, or a Palm OS PDA.
-Freefall to play around with satellites and impress people, same with Backlight. Backlight 2 + Freefall = Dropped PC User Jaws
-MacStumbler, to scan for wifi.
-Adium or Proteus for Instant messaging
-Firefox/Camino for web browsing
-Launchbar - until Tiger comes out.
and many more.
-Freefall to play around with satellites and impress people, same with Backlight. Backlight 2 + Freefall = Dropped PC User Jaws
-MacStumbler, to scan for wifi.
-Adium or Proteus for Instant messaging
-Firefox/Camino for web browsing
-Launchbar - until Tiger comes out.
and many more.
i've never had a problem with this program either. i love it and can't imagine browsing the web without it.mikeyredk said:
Get Mercury (http://www.mercury.to) as MSN client (if you use other IM services... use something else... ICQ is no longer supported by them...)
its a JAVA-based Client made for Win/MacOSX/Linux
instead of MSN for mac this allows you to see/use avatars, automatic logon in whatever 'state' you want to be: invisible, away, sleeping... etc...
notification if someone deletes you from their list, automatic opening of chatwindow whenever someone on the other side starts a conversation (notification if the other user closes the chatwindow...)
at this time they're working on Webcam support, one thing is great: they design the program equal for any operating system (not like MS who leave out a lot of options in MSN for mac 😛)
I quite like it ;-)
its a JAVA-based Client made for Win/MacOSX/Linux
instead of MSN for mac this allows you to see/use avatars, automatic logon in whatever 'state' you want to be: invisible, away, sleeping... etc...
notification if someone deletes you from their list, automatic opening of chatwindow whenever someone on the other side starts a conversation (notification if the other user closes the chatwindow...)
at this time they're working on Webcam support, one thing is great: they design the program equal for any operating system (not like MS who leave out a lot of options in MSN for mac 😛)
I quite like it ;-)
i had to talk to apple tech support to figure out why my laptop was freezing up when i woke it up from sleep they concluded it was sidetrack and suggested immediate removal