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New MBP Just Delivered...Need To Load It Up

M

macbeliever

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 20, 2008
65
3
Alright I'm done with Windows...almost.

My new MBP was delivered on Monday and after a week, and help from a friend with a Macbook at work I think that I know what I need.

Here's my list for software purchases tomorrow:

iLife 08
iWork 08
Roxio Toast 8
Parallel (for old .pub files)
Office 04

I do a lot of blogging and podcasting.

I own my own business so I want to make sure that I can take advantage of all of Apples benefits.

Please let me know what I left off or shouldn't buy.

Down with Bill, Steve's the man!!!

macbeliever
 
Is there a reason you're going with Parallels? Most people who have tried both seem to prefer VMware.
 
Don't all macs come with iLife? Speaking as a switcher, I found the Mac version of Office to be about one step up from unusable. That was the Office 04 trial that came with the mbp - maybe '08 is better, and of course, this is just my opinion. Maybe you'll like it, but I'd at least go to the Apple Store if nothing else and try it out before you buy. On the other hand, I love iWork, though it is missing some features.
 
The biggest reason to get the new MS Office is that the old Office was compiled only for Power PC. On the Macbook Pro it would run under Rosetta. You don't want that.

As someone else said, all Macs come with iLife.

I can't speak for Parallels, but I've had no troubles from VMware Fusion.
 
Is it worth going with iLife 06 over iLife 08?

VMware sounds like a between choice over Parallels, thanks for the info.

I already bought Office 2004 off Ebay. I haven't opened it yet so I can always resell it My friend sys that he has no issues with it. I guess it may not be worth saving $50?

Thanks,
 
macbeliever said:
Is it worth going with iLife 06 over iLife 08?

VMware sounds like a between choice over Parallels, thanks for the info.

I already bought Office 2004 off Ebay. I haven't opened it yet so I can always resell it My friend sys that he has no issues with it. I guess it may not be worth saving $50?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Yeah definitely go with VMWare Fusion. I started off with Parallels and switched to Fusion after numerous problems post-Leopard upgrade. VMWare boots up much faster from a frozen state (pausing the OS and quitting so that you don't have to boot up later). It's also much friendlier to use in terms of settings, installing Windows, etc. I liken Parallels to using Windows and Fusion to using a Mac.
 
macbeliever said:
Is it worth going with iLife 06 over iLife 08?

VMware sounds like a between choice over Parallels, thanks for the info.

I already bought Office 2004 off Ebay. I haven't opened it yet so I can always resell it My friend sys that he has no issues with it. I guess it may not be worth saving $50?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

ilife 08 should come with ur machine


check the restore disks
 
Thanks MurphyM.

Just to keep everyone up to date concerning the iLife question, I bought my MBP refurbished from Apple. Obviously I got Leopard, but was shortchanged on iLife.

That being said would anyone sway me away from iLife 08 over 06?
 
macbeliever said:
VMware sounds like a between choice over Parallels, thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

For deciding between Parallels and Fusion, you should try both (fully functional trials are available of both of them) because YMMV. I've ended up rarely using my copy of Fusion because there is nothing significant that Fusion has that Parallels does not have (except for 64 bit OS support and 2 way SMP, which Parallels will get in an update soon anyway). There are however many features that Parallels has that Fusion does not.
 
brkirch said:
For deciding between Parallels and Fusion, you should try both (fully functional trials are available of both of them) because YMMV. I've ended up rarely using my copy of Fusion because there is nothing significant that Fusion has that Parallels does not have (except for 64 bit OS support and 2 way SMP, which Parallels will get in an update soon anyway). There are however many features that Parallels has that Fusion does not.
Click to expand...
So, what software to buy (or download)...
I use Parallels -- Fusion didn't have any mindshare last summer when I bought my Mac. I've found the latest version of Parallels to be very stable in Leopard (I had annoying problems earlier, but they all seem to have been fixed).

If I were running a business, I'd get MS Office 2008. $50 isn't worth saving for a four year old, prior version of Office, especially in the face of a $2000 - $3000 Mac purchase. If I were not profiting from my Mac, I'd either get iWork (and I did) or switch to OpenOffice.org.

BootChamp - handy switcher for BootCamp
SnapzPro or iShowU -- screenshots and screen video grabs for blogging (?)
AppCleaner - AppZapper, only free
CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper! - backup software, for the paranoid :)
CyberDuck -- free FTP
External Hard-Drive or Time Capsule for Time Machine

For modest graphic editing needs, Pixelmator and VectorDesigner seem a decent set. But there are a variety of interesting apps emerging for this segment. If you're a pro-level graphics person, Adobe CS3, of course.

Dashboard:
iStatNano and/or iStatPro - computer stats a glance
The Weather Channel Weather Widget - weather radar
DeliveryStatus - track packages
EasyEnvelopes - super simple envelope address printing for the rare envelopes
 
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