What Software For an IMac?

[EdT]

OK, One way or another I will be buying soon. If updates to the IMac don't come out in July-early August I'll quit waiting. What I want to know now is what other software should I be looking at. Here's what I plan on doing with the computer:

Photos- I have about 15000 photos now on my PC. Although I've slowly learned to be a better photographer, I still need/use features from Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, mostly for contrast and lighting/darkening of photos. I don't "Photoshop" pictures, at least not yet. I would like to create albums, right now they are just in folders with the date as part of the folder name.Is Iphoto good enough for basic photo editing or should I be looking at something else?

Video Editing- Very basic stuff. I have a lot of videos from our college hockey team, and I would like to edit out the intermissions between periods. These were taken either by students at the game or picked up from the local PBS channel, so there is no DRM embedded in the video. I tried editing a game with my current computer, but it's 5 years old (and a PC) and it really showed its age. Some processes took 1 to 2 hours, and I never did finish editing the entire game. Similar question to the above- is the included iMovie good enough? Side question- Best way hardware/software wise to get unprotected DVD's or DVR (Dish Network DVR) into an IMac (once again, not trying to unencrypt commercial programs).

Multi-OS systems- I know about the existence of Bootcamp and Parallels, but I don't know much else about them. How many different OS can they handle? I am thinking of trying Linux, and if forced to, XP, all on this computer. Can either or both handle 3 different OS? I don't think I need to run them in Virtual Machines, unless it doesn't cause a severe performance drag.

Utility Software- Including E-mail software, and Anti-spam. Anything else people consider very useful or downright necessary?

Thanks in advance for the advice.......

 

[72930]

Photos- I have about 15000 photos now on my PC. Although I've slowly learned to be a better photographer, I still need/use features from Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, mostly for contrast and lighting/darkening of photos. I don't "Photoshop" pictures, at least not yet. I would like to create albums, right now they are just in folders with the date as part of the folder name.Is Iphoto good enough for basic photo editing or should I be looking at something else?

I would give iPhoto a shot. Its editing is kinda basic, but good enough for me. Its organisation and integration with the OS is amazing.

Video Editing- Very basic stuff. I have a lot of videos from our college hockey team, and I would like to edit out the intermissions between periods. These were taken either by students at the game or picked up from the local PBS channel, so there is no DRM embedded in the video. I tried editing a game with my current computer, but it's 5 years old (and a PC) and it really showed its age. Some processes took 1 to 2 hours, and I never did finish editing the entire game.

iMovie, comes with your mac

Multi-OS systems- I know about Bootcamp and Parallels, but I don't know their limitations. How many different OS can they handle? I am thinking of trying Linux, and if forced to, XP, all on this computer. Can either or both handle 3 different OS? I don't think I need to run them in Virtual Machines, unless it doesn't cause a severe performance drag.

Boot Camp can only handle XP SP2, or any Vista version, you can however use other solutions for dual booting Linux and OSX or even triple booting Windows+OSX+Linux.

You need a LOT of RAM to run 3 OSs comfortably at once, 1GB won't cut it.

So far, VMWare's Fusion is better than Parallels for Linux integration. 3D support in both of these is limited, and only a few games run. Boot Camp works natively graphically.

Utility Software- Including E-mail software, and Anti-spam. Anything else people consider very useful or downright necessary?

OSX's Mail app is great, and has good Junk filtering.

VLC player is a necessity, as it can play virtually all video formats. Flip4Mac lets you play .wmv files in Quicktime. Inquisitor for Safari feels like a necessity. Quicksilver takes some getting used to, but people who like it (a lot of us), really really really like it. Camino for the few things Safari cannot handle. NeoOffice for a free office suite.

Check out the beginners guides

 

[swiftaw]

I have a lot of videos from our college hockey team

Would that be the Mavericks?

 

[EdT]

Would that be the Mavericks?

Yes, it is. As are most of the photos. Hello MavFan!