Just got our first Mac need software

[HeatherA]

Helpful Information for Any Mac User

That's a great link! Thanks... didn't stumble across that as I've been learning my new MBP the last week or so!

 

[Robbug]

If you work for the US government there are programs out there to assist you on the MS office side of the house - well until Friday when the budget runs out

 

[GGJstudios]

Now, don't let these people lead you to believe you'll NEVER need protection software.

Read the link in post #6. No antivirus app can protect you from a virus that doesn't exist.

Macs are getting more and more popular, which means the risk of somebody writing and sending a piece of malicious code into the wild are more and more likely.

The market share myth has been debunked many times. It's not valid.

That said, PCTools has a great antivirus for Mac just in case.

iAntiVirus is one app that makes inaccurate claims about the existence of Mac malware, in order to hype the need for their product. I don't recommend it at all. This post will give details.

 

[Al Coholic]

Color me silly but aren't you supposed to find a use for the machine before you buy it? Getting a mac first then asking what you need it for (or if it can do a certain task) sounds bass-ackwards to me.

 

[GGJstudios]

Color me silly but aren't you supposed to find a use for the machine before you buy it? Getting a mac first then asking what you need it for (or if it can do a certain task) sounds bass-ackwards to me.

The OP didn't say they don't have a use for their Mac. They simply asked what others think are good apps to have, in addition to what they already plan to use it for.

 

[Looon]

Color me silly but aren't you supposed to find a use for the machine before you buy it? Getting a mac first then asking what you need it for (or if it can do a certain task) sounds bass-ackwards to me.

A computer is a computer

 

[munkery]

New to Mac? Check out the links in my sig.

 

[ack401]

The thing about the OP that jumps out at me is Photoshop. While GIMP is great for some basic stuff, there are a lot of things you just CAN'T do without full Photoshop. Do you need to do these things? Photoshop's grouping, nested grouping, and layering controls are pretty phenomenal, and in conjunction with masking, are largely unmatched. The liquify tool, content-aware fill, and a lot of functionality around History and Actions are also pretty unique.

If you want to resize images, print them, remove red-eye, and deal with contrast and such in photographs, you will probably do OK with Adobe Lightroom or GIMP. If you want to produce crafted, print-ready documents from digital negatives, or you want to build combination vector/raster comps of web layouts, you're probably looking at PS (or Illustrator...). It's a function of how (and how deeply) you intend to use the software--that'll dictate whether it's worth the $$$ for Adobe's products.

Here's a great barometer: Last week, I spent a total of 23 hours working on four photographs in Photoshop. If you can't imagine what I could possibly have been doing for that long, you'll probably be ok with a lighter piece of software. If you're impressed that it went that quick, well, get Photoshop and learn the keyboard shortcuts a little better.

 

[Grahamps]

Many of the useful programs that I've picked up have been via MacHeist software bundles. The price for the bundles is always worth picking up a couple of programs that I have no interest in, getting a few I am ready to use and keeping some in the stable of my mind when I finally have a use.

MacHeist creates Mac software bundles to benefit charities, and you will probably pickup 10 licenses, on average, when you buy in. It's never been a problem (that I can recall) for me to refer back to my "receipts" and activate software, even 2-3 years later; so, there's no pressure to download apps right away, if you don't see a need.

http://www.macheist.com/

I've noticed that MacHeist has been the first to offer me cool software. The other bundles haven't stood out as much, and some of their best offerings have already been in MacHeist.

This is all pre-Mac App Store, and I can only assume that future MacHeists will occur.

 

[benhollberg]

Don't use iwork if everyone else you know is using Microsoft Office unless you enjoy having all your documents having thousands of formatting errors each time you switch between the two

Agreed, I only use iWork for personal stuff or school papers but if I'm going to be exchanging or sharing stuff I use Microsoft Office.

 

[mikepro]

Consider the latest Photoshop Elements, instead of full blown photoshop. Cheaper, and quite capable editor. Spot healing brush, layers, guided edits, photo recompose. Unless you are a pro, it's probably good enough. And, since you are asking these questions, I'm guessing your not a pro...

 

[fessen]

Instead of Microsoft Office you should get iWork ($80 and is much better) and instead of Photoshop get Pixelmator ($60)
Also get:
AppCleaner (free) completely removes applications [should you ever need to]
The Unarchiver or Unrarx (free) for extracting rar files
Carbon Copy Cloner (free) great backup app
VLC Media Player (free) plays almost any format media files

Enjoy your Mac!

Don't use iwork if everyone else you know is using Microsoft Office unless you enjoy having all your documents having thousands of formatting errors each time you switch between the two

Agreed, I only use iWork for personal stuff or school papers but if I'm going to be exchanging or sharing stuff I use Microsoft Office.

How about Open Office? Isn't it pretty compatible with Microsoft Office?
And it's free (donation requested).

 

[fessen]

Now, don't let these people lead you to believe you'll NEVER need protection software. Macs are getting more and more popular, which means the risk of somebody writing and sending a piece of malicious code into the wild are more and more likely.

That said, PCTools has a great antivirus for Mac just in case.

And best of all, it's free.

http://www.iantivirus.com/

I've been running iantivirus for a little more than a year, and I used to think it was perfect for my needs -- minimally intrusive, reasonably fast at on-demand scanning, and free.

But from what I've been reading on other boards lately, I've been having second thoughts. Board posters are suggesting that since Symantec (Norton) bought out the PCTools (iAntivirus),they have been neglecting the product, with very little in the way of software updates.

Then there's this
http://kismaxx.blogspot.com/2010/11/antivirus-for-mac-scary-results.html

Not sure what to make of that^, as I can't find any other corroborating systematic tests comparing the various anti-malware programs specifically for mac OS X users.

 

[GGJstudios]

I've been running iantivirus for a little more than a year

Did you read my earlier post?

iAntiVirus is one app that makes inaccurate claims about the existence of Mac malware, in order to hype the need for their product. I don't recommend it at all. This post will give details.

Bottom line: you don't need antivirus to protect your Mac from malware. Read the link I posted in post #6.

 

[Ackerman651]

I can't believe only one person has mentioned OpenOffice. I've been using it for years and I have yet to run into compatibility issues with Word or any other office application.

http://www.openoffice.org/

I'd highly suggest at least giving it a try before you shell out all that money for a Microsoft product, which you're probably trying to avoid since you purchased a Mac.

As far as photo editing, try GIMP. It's also free and is very comparable to Photoshop. It may not be powerful enough in some cases, but for most people that are not professionals it does everything you need and more.

http://www.gimp.org/

If you download torrents, try Transmission, by far the best torrent client.

http://www.transmissionbt.com/

And this might not be something you'll ever use, but it's definitely one of the coolest free programs I've ever seen.

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx

Hope this helped.

 

[munkery]

With the purchase of Sun by Oracle (which is not known for being open source friendly), many of those involved in the development of OpenOffice have forked off to create a new open source office suite called LibreOffice.

I prefer NeoOffice as it is better integrated with Mac OS X but the latest release requires "forced donation" of $10 to download. This may actually be in conflict with it's GPL. You can still download the previous release for free if you want to try it. Honestly, it is worth the donation price if you find the previous release fits your needs.

 

[fessen]

Did you read my earlier post?

Bottom line: you don't need antivirus to protect your Mac from malware. Read the link I posted in post #6.

Yes, I did. It links to a post that is a year old, which has specific information on iantivirus that is two years old.

There has never been a virus/malware threat in the wild ... yet.

Call me hysterical, but I'd just rather not be a sitting duck for when the day comes, if it ever comes, that that all changes.

I'm also setting up a system for some elderly friends, who I'm worried may be particularly likely to do the kinds of things that increase the risks of exposure to whatever threats might arise. So I don't really see a significant downside, on balance, to running anti-malware software for them.

 

[Bernard SG]

Yes, I did. It links to a post that is a year old, which has specific information on iantivirus that is two years old.

There has never been a virus/malware threat in the wild ... yet.

Call me hysterical, but I'd just rather not be a sitting duck for when the day comes, if it ever comes, that that all changes.

I'm also setting up a system for some elderly friends, who I'm worried may be particularly likely to do the kinds of things that increase the risks of exposure to whatever threats might arise. So I don't really see a significant downside, on balance, to running anti-malware software for them.

Once again, since there is no Mac OS X virus in the wild, existing Mac antivirus software is absolutely useless to protect from a hypothetical future virus that would appear. No Antivirus can protect you against anything that it doesn't know yet.
On top of that, the very nature of antivirus software is actually making them an additional risk in terms of hacking vulnerabilities. Also keep in mind that they are using CPU and resources.

 

[acedickson]

Yes, I did. It links to a post that is a year old, which has specific information on iantivirus that is two years old.

There has never been a virus/malware threat in the wild ... yet.

Call me hysterical, but I'd just rather not be a sitting duck for when the day comes, if it ever comes, that that all changes.

I'm also setting up a system for some elderly friends, who I'm worried may be particularly likely to do the kinds of things that increase the risks of exposure to whatever threats might arise. So I don't really see a significant downside, on balance, to running anti-malware software for them.

In essence, you're a sitting duck with or without antivirus on a mac. If a virus is released tomorrow your antivirus has no definitions for it and you're equally as vulnerable.

 

[GGJstudios]

Yes, I did. It links to a post that is a year old, which has specific information on iantivirus that is two years old.

The age of the information is irrelevant. The point is that iAntiVirus makes bogus claims about threats, in order to artificially create a demand for their product. If you want to talk about age, most of the "threats" they identify are over 10 years old and pose no threat at all for Mac OS X users.

There has never been a virus/malware threat in the wild ... yet.

That's not true. There are malware threats in the wild... in the form of trojans, which can be avoided by a user taking care in what they install.

Call me hysterical, but I'd just rather not be a sitting duck for when the day comes, if it ever comes, that that all changes.

There hasn't been a virus released in the wild that runs on Mac OS X, but as others have pointed out, any antivirus you have today will not protect you if a virus is released in the future, because no antivirus can protect you from a virus that doesn't exist. They don't know what to look for.

If you want to run antivirus, that's fine. Just don't have a false sense of security, thinking it will protect you from future threats. ClamXav is recommended, since it doesn't increase your Mac's vulnerability, as some others do.

 

[jsgreen]

Some software I've felt is great on the Mac and I didn't see on a quick review through this thread:

1Password ($) - for storing logins, passwords; syncs with PCs and iPhones too.

PreyProject (free or $ to upgrade) - if you lose you laptop, Prey might help you find it - sends alerts to the laptop and will attempt to show its location on a map.

EverNote (free or $ to upgrade) - for managing lots of to-do and, well, just about anything (similar to OneNote on Windows); Evernote is cross platform.

DropBox (free or $ to upgrade) - if you need cloud storage which syncs between devices (keep folders in sync between Mac and PC, for example.

Caffeine (free) - menubar item to keep your MacBook from dimming or going to sleep (useful when watching movies or giving presentations)

MenuWeather Lite (free) - puts the weather in your menubar

 

[daceymathers]

Hi everyone,
My wife and I have been using iPhones and iPads since they first came out but we never have had a Mac before. Thanks to this forum I bought a 13 inch MacBook pro for my wife for $999 by getting best buy to match microcenter's pricing. Anyway, what is the must have software for the Mac. We will probably get Microsoft office and my wife is a big photoshop user and needs adobe writer. Are there any cheaper alternatives that you guys can recommend? What other software or apps are must haves? Thanks for the input.

There are various writing software for mac.Scrivener,WriteItNow,Celtex,Evernote etc are mac software.You can choose any one of them.Microsoft office is also good.