Finally Switching. Need Some Info...

[johnrbell]

i'll make a long story short...

been running the same pc for 3.5 years. its fast and stable.
reason is, i spend a few hours a month using process scanners, anti-virus software, spyware stuff, registry cleaners, etc, etc.
im tired of this completely unnessicary upkeep.

i finally started to slak, and bingo, got a virus. pretty nasty one too. wasn't a process, still showed up in the systray. nothing detected it. ran in safemode too. anyway, i finally got rid of it after 3 days, but i took it as an omen.

im getting a new blackbook for christmas. i plan to replace my desktop with it.

my planned usage is:
im a student. (business)
photo editing.
web design (i own www.thecarspace.com)
music. (getting a g2 shuffle too)

i want to avoid pirated software completely. im sure the topic is taboo here anyway, but i'll admit, i did it before, but thats what leads to 90% of viruses and spyware.
anyway, my concerns are as followed.

1. as a student, i need something like microsoft office. i figure open office is the best alternative. safe assumption?

2. for photo editing, photoshop is out of my price range. i dont want to crack cs3 or anything similar... from what i have read, GIMPshop seems to be the best alternative. the only thing its missing that i LOVE is shadow/highlight and match color. can anyone offer any other options for photo editing?

3. i like to consider myself a minimalist. i've hacked and cracked and modified my XP to my liking. oddly enough, it reminds me of OSX, haha. adium seems to be the best option for an aim client. any aim cliends i've run on XP have been modified to be as simple as possible. blends in with my black background, small white text, just shows the users alias and status icon.
is there something similar for adium? i haven't gotten a chance to look around much in regards to this.

4. what is the best torrent client? just looking for something simple...

5. any freeware even remotely close to aperature?

6. is there a cool way to implement gmail notifier into adium? i know it supports google talk... so i just figured.... would be a nice way to save on mem. usage.

7. if i download a zip of an album that i already own.. will itunes or the shuffle give me any problems with it- since its not paid for through itunes?

i think thats enough questions for now. i'm sure i will think of more though.

 

[Analog Kid]

i'll make a long story short...

been running the same pc for 3.5 years. its fast and stable.
reason is, i spend a few hours a month using process scanners, anti-virus software, spyware stuff, registry cleaners, etc, etc.
im tired of this completely unnessicary upkeep.

i finally started to slak, and bingo, got a virus. pretty nasty one too. wasn't a process, still showed up in the systray. nothing detected it. ran in safemode too. anyway, i finally got rid of it after 3 days, but i took it as an omen.

im getting a new blackbook for christmas. i plan to replace my desktop with it.

my planned usage is:
im a student. (business)
photo editing.
web design (i own www.thecarspace.com)
music. (getting a g2 shuffle too)

i want to avoid pirated software completely. im sure the topic is taboo here anyway, but i'll admit, i did it before, but thats what leads to 90% of viruses and spyware.
anyway, my concerns are as followed.

1. as a student, i need something like microsoft office. i figure open office is the best alternative. safe assumption?

2. for photo editing, photoshop is out of my price range. i dont want to crack cs3 or anything similar... from what i have read, GIMPshop seems to be the best alternative. the only thing its missing that i LOVE is shadow/highlight and match color. can anyone offer any other options for photo editing?

3. i like to consider myself a minimalist. i've hacked and cracked and modified my XP to my liking. oddly enough, it reminds me of OSX, haha. adium seems to be the best option for an aim client. any aim cliends i've run on XP have been modified to be as simple as possible. blends in with my black background, small white text, just shows the users alias and status icon.
is there something similar for adium? i haven't gotten a chance to look around much in regards to this.

4. what is the best torrent client? just looking for something simple...

5. any freeware even remotely close to aperature?

6. is there a cool way to implement gmail notifier into adium? i know it supports google talk... so i just figured.... would be a nice way to save on mem. usage.

7. if i download a zip of an album that i already own.. will itunes or the shuffle give me any problems with it- since its not paid for through itunes?

i think thats enough questions for now. i'm sure i will think of more though.

Good choice on the switch. I don't know how people justify as much upkeep as a WinPC requires. All the same, don't be stupid even on a Mac. Most viruses these days are social engineering tricks and the Mac will do what you tell it to just like Windows does.

On some of these questions, you might want to wait until after MWSF. The new iLife/iWork are likely to come out and the feature set for those two suites would grow.

I run Office Mac at work, but at home I just use Pages which is more compatible with Word than Word is sometimes... No spreadsheet yet, but that's rumored to change come January.

Open Office seems to be a reasonable alternative, but I find it a bit clunky.

iPhoto is the consumer sibling to Aperture. It's great for just about everyone but those who are really, really serious about their photos. It's not Photoshop, and it's not Aperture, but it's got enough tweakability to get by.

I just downloaded Chocoflop which is another image editing app but haven't played with it much. Not a full Photoshop replacement, I'm sure, but it's free for now and might be worth a look.

As long as your song files are MP3 or AAC, they should play fine in iTunes/shuffle. If they're Ogg, you'll have to re-encode.

I use iChat for IM. It comes with the system and is AIM compatible. I'm nothing like a power user though when it comes to AIM.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

1. as a student, i need something like microsoft office. i figure open office is the best alternative. safe assumption?

Office for Mac is available, but if its at all possible, i would wait until next year for the 2007 edition to be released. the latest version runs ok on intel Macs, but don't expect it to fly.

2. for photo editing, photoshop is out of my price range. i dont want to crack cs3 or anything similar... from what i have read, GIMPshop seems to be the best alternative. the only thing its missing that i LOVE is shadow/highlight and match color. can anyone offer any other options for photo editing?

You can get a program called Graphic Converter. I use it occasionally, but its a weird program. its worth a try, though.

3. i like to consider myself a minimalist. i've hacked and cracked and modified my XP to my liking. oddly enough, it reminds me of OSX, haha. adium seems to be the best option for an aim client. any aim cliends i've run on XP have been modified to be as simple as possible. blends in with my black background, small white text, just shows the users alias and status icon.
is there something similar for adium? i haven't gotten a chance to look around much in regards to this.

For AIM, iChat is probably the best, although it isn't very customisable. Adium is a great program, and if you are familiar with it, keep on using it.

6. is there a cool way to implement gmail notifier into adium? i know it supports google talk... so i just figured.... would be a nice way to save on mem. usage.

I don't know about Adium, but you can make your gmail account accessable through Apple's Mail application. Instructions are on the gmail site.

7. if i download a zip of an album that i already own.. will itunes or the shuffle give me any problems with it- since its not paid for through itunes?

As long as it's a good format (ie not .wma), it'll play on both iTunes and your iPod.

Hope that helps

 

[xUKHCx]

i'll make a long story short...

been running the same pc for 3.5 years. its fast and stable.
reason is, i spend a few hours a month using process scanners, anti-virus software, spyware stuff, registry cleaners, etc, etc.
im tired of this completely unnessicary upkeep.

i finally started to slak, and bingo, got a virus. pretty nasty one too. wasn't a process, still showed up in the systray. nothing detected it. ran in safemode too. anyway, i finally got rid of it after 3 days, but i took it as an omen.

im getting a new blackbook for christmas. i plan to replace my desktop with it.

my planned usage is:
im a student. (business)
photo editing.
web design (i own www.thecarspace.com)
music. (getting a g2 shuffle too)

i want to avoid pirated software completely. im sure the topic is taboo here anyway, but i'll admit, i did it before, but thats what leads to 90% of viruses and spyware.
anyway, my concerns are as followed.

1. as a student, i need something like microsoft office. i figure open office is the best alternative. safe assumption?

2. for photo editing, photoshop is out of my price range. i dont want to crack cs3 or anything similar... from what i have read, GIMPshop seems to be the best alternative. the only thing its missing that i LOVE is shadow/highlight and match color. can anyone offer any other options for photo editing?

3. i like to consider myself a minimalist. i've hacked and cracked and modified my XP to my liking. oddly enough, it reminds me of OSX, haha. adium seems to be the best option for an aim client. any aim cliends i've run on XP have been modified to be as simple as possible. blends in with my black background, small white text, just shows the users alias and status icon.
is there something similar for adium? i haven't gotten a chance to look around much in regards to this.

4. what is the best torrent client? just looking for something simple...

5. any freeware even remotely close to aperature?

6. is there a cool way to implement gmail notifier into adium? i know it supports google talk... so i just figured.... would be a nice way to save on mem. usage.

7. if i download a zip of an album that i already own.. will itunes or the shuffle give me any problems with it- since its not paid for through itunes?

i think thats enough questions for now. i'm sure i will think of more though.

I'm sure by the time i have written this someone will have replied so just add these as votes to other peoples list.

1.) NeoOffice is free and personnally i prefer it to OpenOffice.

2.) Not Sure

3.) Not Sure

4.) I use Azureus (pretty complex) but there are many others like BitRocket

5.) iPhoto, but for student price Aperture is worth it over here it is only £89.30 compared to like £219 (a MASSIVE saving). Apple are a little bit naughty here. If you configure a new mac in there Educational Store online they give you the option to have Aperture preinstalled at a price of £190.35 but if you add it seperately to your basket it is only £89.30 (at least here iin the UK)

6.) Not Sure

7.) As long as it isnt DRM'd, or windows media files iTunes will import them just fine. If they are Windows Meida files such as wma i would suggest converting them to aac or mp3 on your windows machine before sending them across.

 

[obrien234]

i'll make a long story short...

been running the same pc for 3.5 years. its fast and stable.
reason is, i spend a few hours a month using process scanners, anti-virus software, spyware stuff, registry cleaners, etc, etc.
im tired of this completely unnessicary upkeep.

i finally started to slak, and bingo, got a virus. pretty nasty one too. wasn't a process, still showed up in the systray. nothing detected it. ran in safemode too. anyway, i finally got rid of it after 3 days, but i took it as an omen.

im getting a new blackbook for christmas. i plan to replace my desktop with it.

my planned usage is:
im a student. (business)
photo editing.
web design (i own www.thecarspace.com)
music. (getting a g2 shuffle too)

i want to avoid pirated software completely. im sure the topic is taboo here anyway, but i'll admit, i did it before, but thats what leads to 90% of viruses and spyware.
anyway, my concerns are as followed.

1. as a student, i need something like microsoft office. i figure open office is the best alternative. safe assumption?

2. for photo editing, photoshop is out of my price range. i dont want to crack cs3 or anything similar... from what i have read, GIMPshop seems to be the best alternative. the only thing its missing that i LOVE is shadow/highlight and match color. can anyone offer any other options for photo editing?

3. i like to consider myself a minimalist. i've hacked and cracked and modified my XP to my liking. oddly enough, it reminds me of OSX, haha. adium seems to be the best option for an aim client. any aim cliends i've run on XP have been modified to be as simple as possible. blends in with my black background, small white text, just shows the users alias and status icon.
is there something similar for adium? i haven't gotten a chance to look around much in regards to this.

4. what is the best torrent client? just looking for something simple...

5. any freeware even remotely close to aperature?

6. is there a cool way to implement gmail notifier into adium? i know it supports google talk... so i just figured.... would be a nice way to save on mem. usage.

7. if i download a zip of an album that i already own.. will itunes or the shuffle give me any problems with it- since its not paid for through itunes?

i think thats enough questions for now. i'm sure i will think of more though.

1. read above posts (I got nothing else)

2. You also might want to check out Seashore and Image Tricks (Seashore is free, and Image Tricks is shareware I believe)

3. Adium is wonderful. the website www.adiumx.com has a huge list of contact list styles under the "Xtras" tab. Do be warned though file transfer still is kind of buggy on it, so if you do a lot of that stick with iChat (which is a solid program, just not as customizable). Also there is a beta of Adium available. Just google it and you should be able to find it.

4. I use Transmission. Very simple and to the point (and free!).

5. No clue.

6. I don't know about adium, but there is a menubar application that is integrated. But I would seriously suggest using Apple's Mail program. I've been using it for years and I absolutely love it.

7.see above

 

[emptyCup]

5. any freeware even remotely close to aperature?

You can still download the Adobe Lightroom beta for free. I would expect to see the most basic features of Aperture make it into the next version of iPhoto, with an Aperture Express some time in the future. That has been Apple's approach with Final Cut, DVD Pro and their other major software.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

5.) iPhoto, but for student price Aperture is worth it over here it is only £89.30 compared to like £219 (a MASSIVE saving). Apple are a little bit naughty here.

4) Use Transmission (it's free) for bittorrenting, Azeureus (sp?) is pretty bad.

5) iPhoto comes with your Mac (its pretty good).