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Apps I like, hate, and wants

slooksterPSV

slooksterPSV

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Apr 17, 2004
3,546
309
Nowheresville
Recently I was able to purchase Microsoft Office for Mac - as much as I don't like Microsoft products, I wanted an Office Suite that would be fast (NeoOffice loads slowly, but when loaded works well, OpenOffice requires X11 and I hate X11 Emulation cause its not Carbon/Cocoa-ized for the interface etc.)

Entourage is an awesome program - Apple needs to make Address Book, Mail, and iCal still separate applications, but for us Power Users, they need to combine them into one simple app like Entourage does. I found an app that does something similar but its $49.95!

MSN Messenger is a horrible program - I do like the features of it, but its so bulky on my 1024x768 monitor, I have no room for desktop space, especially when it comes to multiple im's so I use Adium. Adium is one of my fave programs cause I can make it small, light-weight, and it doesn't use a ton of RAM.

Safari is ok, but I wish it wasn't so bulky, I wish it was more like Firefox. I use Firefox, but its too much of a RAM hog, well what about Camino, Camino doesn't have all the necessary functions like Firefox does. There's some things that won't work with Camino, but will with Firefox.

TextWrangler - Love it, I love this app cause it's like using pico but better cause of the code styling and everything, save it as whatever I want - HTML, C++, C, PLIST, BAT, etc. etc. etc. etc.

Onyx - best maintenance app around.

VLC - Awesome video player, but wish it was more like QuickTime. I wish QuickTime had more video formats supported like VLC supports.

XCode & Interface Builder - Perfect, what can I say, who wants to fork out $$$$$$$$$ for Microsoft Visual Studio or Borland apps?

Terminal - Love it, simple love it, the transparency I can do, coloring, everything for text based things.

iWeb - hate it; users need MORE finite control!

RagTime Solo - not available anymore, but its very comparable to InDesign or Quark Express

Now yes I have read about Apple's Interface Standards, but come on, some apps do better than others.

So a few questions:
1 - is there an app like Entourage that is free that combines iCal, Mail, and Address Book into one?
2 - is there a light-weight web browser that supports QuickTime, Java, Flash, Shockwave, etc. etc. etc. like Firefox or Safari, but has plug-ins like firefox or is there a way to decrease the amount of RAM firefox uses?
3 - is there a quick fast free Office Suite? Microsoft's office suite is great, AppleWorks is good, but not too appealing to the interface, OpenOffice and NeoOffice are too slow.
4 - any good free WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver or GoLive?
5 - any other good free apps you think I'd might like that can increase my productivity on my machine?
 
slooksterPSV said:
So a few questions:
1 - is there an app like Entourage that is free that combines iCal, Mail, and Address Book into one?
2 - is there a light-weight web browser that supports QuickTime, Java, Flash, Shockwave, etc. etc. etc. like Firefox or Safari, but has plug-ins like firefox or is there a way to decrease the amount of RAM firefox uses?
3 - is there a quick fast free Office Suite? Microsoft's office suite is great, AppleWorks is good, but not too appealing to the interface, OpenOffice and NeoOffice are too slow.
4 - any good free WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver or GoLive?
5 - any other good free apps you think I'd might like that can increase my productivity on my machine?
Click to expand...

1 - Try Thunderbird. It's a free alternative. *shrug*
2 - Try Camino.
3 - If NeoOffice doesn't do it for you, Microsoft Office is basically the best there is. You can try iWork, but it's missing an spreadsheet app. Wait 'til MacWorld and see what they do with iWork '07.

I'll let others answer the other 2.
 
Meh I don't care for NVU. I downloaded Thunderbird and installed Lightning, so now I've stopped using Entourage. I love Mozilla Products, they are awesome. Same with Apple Products.
 
slooksterPSV said:
Meh I don't care for NVU. I downloaded Thunderbird and installed Lightning, so now I've stopped using Entourage. I love Mozilla Products, they are awesome. Same with Apple Products.
Click to expand...

Beggers can't be choosers. If you really need a high quality web site editor then pay for it.
 
Have you tried Opera's browser? (opera.com) It's got some nice features.

For a smaller browser app, you could always try icab (icab.de) It really is meant for older macs, and I haven't tried it with OSX, but its big selling point is its small footprint
 
In terms of making Quicktime more usable, if you install Flip4Mac and Perian, between the two, it should handle most video files....I hardly ever encounter times when it doesn't work between these.
 
mkrishnan said:
In terms of making Quicktime more usable, if you install Flip4Mac and Perian, between the two, it should handle most video files....I hardly ever encounter times when it doesn't work between these.
Click to expand...

yeah, and for everything else, there is VLC :)
 
Onyx is not so sweet. I used to like it a good deal, but feel that it is very invasive in its approach to running the operations it offers. I say get rid of Onyx and get MainMenu, it is awesome and runs right in the menu bar if you want.
 
mkrishnan said:
In terms of making Quicktime more usable, if you install Flip4Mac and Perian, between the two, it should handle most video files....I hardly ever encounter times when it doesn't work between these.
Click to expand...

Hm. I dont think ive ever had a file it couldnt play. Well, maybe that one time...;)
 
Cha-Ching!

I want it! Buying it very soon once I figure out my funds for the rest of the month.


Anyone else using Cha-Ching?
 
tominated said:
if you wan't a more professional wysiwyg editor, get rapidweaver. it's awesome

BTW: if want a really lightwieght browser, try Tominated browser. It supports flash, but not shockwave (yet..). It's also as fast as, if not faster, than safari! you can get it here
Click to expand...

I like tominated, but it's lacking a lot right now, it works, plays videos, plays flash, its fast, very fast, but there's a lot of work to be done like:
Text on pages isn't formated right, the Apple.com home page text is like 24pt font when it should be 12pt. It needs tabbed-browsing (coming soon) and other features, but its great overall.
 
slooksterPSV said:
I like tominated, but it's lacking a lot right now, it works, plays videos, plays flash, its fast, very fast, but there's a lot of work to be done like:
Text on pages isn't formated right, the Apple.com home page text is like 24pt font when it should be 12pt. It needs tabbed-browsing (coming soon) and other features, but its great overall.
Click to expand...

i don't have a clue why the text does that, but thanks for the comments. i am reall trying to get tabs to work, but xcode isn't playing nice
 
tominated said:
if you wan't a more professional wysiwyg editor, get rapidweaver. it's awesome
Click to expand...

Rapidweaver is nowhere near "professional" software. "Professionals" know how to code by hand, while rapidweaver is targeted for those who don't know how to code. It's like saying iMovie is pro video editing software.
 
Thunderbird with Lightning is awesome, I've transfered everything from Address Book, Mail, and iCal to Thunderbird and Lightning. I'm not using Entourage anymore, guess I need to export my Entourage emails and put them in Thunderbird too. There's a lot of great free software out there, I'm so amazed.
 
Yeah, mozilla apps especially (firefox and thunderbird) are of particularly high quality. I would be lost without them on my mac. :)
 
i love safari. reset and private browsing are ingenious.
sometimes it doesn't display pages correctly, but i can cope
what i hate is netscape. that's the worst browser ever made. ever.

i got office instead of iWork because i already know how to use it.
MS Word doesn't tell me how to do things, it lets me do it myself.
i actually like mail more than entourage. i wish MS Office came with Publisher though.

as for messengers, if they dont have aim, i have no reason to talk to them.
however i LOVE yahoo chat icon on my dock though i never use it.
i recommend downloading yahoo messenger just to have the icon on your dock.
 
Menu Bar Mac Face Icon lists active applications

My 17" PowerBook G4 hard drive died, so I upgraded to a 17" MacBook Pro C2D. However, the G4 running OS 10.4 had a utility icon of a Mac face on the menu bar that displayed all the active applications in a dropdown menu. It also highlighted the application in the forground, and allowed any application in the list to be put in the forground just by clicking the list entry. This is a most usefull utility.

Since I tend to keep many application open at a time, this utility was very helpful, and very frustrating to be without. I can recall that it came with some other software, but I cannot recall what. If anyone knows where I can find this gem of a utility, please let me know.
 
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