Getting a Mac - What Do I Need?

[Russic]

Greetings everybody,

Tomorrow I make the switch. I've been working on a mac for two years and have slowly been sucked in by the brand. I've been wanting to bring one into my home for about a year now and I finally am in the financial situation to do so. I thought I'd take this opportunity to question the mac users around here as to what they feel are the "must-have" additions to my new white overlord.

At my work I haven't had the time to tool around with anything beyond the very basics (although I haven't really even checked out things like ilife to be honest). I adore Quicksilver, but that's one of the only things I've actively searched out and learned.

I have a list going of things that will go on or be configured for the Mac for day 1. This list includes:

• quicksilver (launcher)
• Aimersoft Mac Video Converter 1.2.0.4 (35$)
• Configure Mail to sync with gmail
• Handbrake (back up my dvds)
• iwork
• rssvisualizer (my favorite screen saver of all time)
• ishowu (screen recorder)
• External hard drive to be used with time machine (500 gb)
• Adobe Creative Suite 3

So I'm looking to the gurus to let me know if there is anything I need to add to this list to make my general mac experience more enjoyable. I'm not really into anything IT-ish (code and I are casual acquaintances, but we avoid each other at all costs). My main interests are in photography, graphic design, web design and music.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Tyler]

VLC - Free media player. Will play anything. Google VLC for Mac.

Synergy - Menu bar iTunes controller. It's only $5, and is the handiest thing! (http://wincent.com/a/products/synergy-classic/)

[Russic]

Awesome, thanks very much!

[Berger_4_]

I made the switch today too! In fact, I'm currently transferring all of my music from the desktop to my snazzy new Macbook Pro...and yeah, any tips for us Mac newbies would be greatly appreciated!

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by Tyler

VLC - Free media player. Will play anything. Google VLC for Mac.

Synergy - Menu bar iTunes controller. It's only $5, and is the handiest thing! (http://wincent.com/a/products/synergy-classic/)

Fully agree on both counts, but especially VLC. It plays anything, corrupt or not.

And get Garageband for the kids.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Flip4Mac
Stuffit Expander
Adobe pdf reader

[llama64]

Adium (IM replacement. Does gTalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, etc..)
iStat Pro (awesome little widget for system info)
NeoOffice (native OSX implementation of Open Office)

FTP Client (Yummy FTP is the best client I've ever used on any platform, CyberDuck is also good)
TextWrangler or Smultron (text editors)

A good non-Apple mouse. Apple fails at understanding how to make a good mouse.

[MJK]

Garageband comes on the mac and it is WICKED!

Here are some others I suggest:

Transmission - For all your torrent downloading needs.
Google Earth - Fun as heck to play with!
Neo Office - A free program and well worth it
VLC - No one should be without this program

[chid]

Definitely VLC

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by MJK

Google Earth - Fun as heck to play with!

Another brilliant Google offering is Sketchup. Easily the most intuitive 3D modelling app out there. And free, of course.

My biggest recommendation is to take the time to learn all of the features of the operating system: things like Spaces or Automator can really improve your workflow, especially if you're doing a lot of graphics and design stuff.

[cheung31]

Adium, best IM client for the Mac.
Transmission, BitTorrent client.

[Russic]

Wow, thanks to you all! CP proves itself clutch once again.

[HotHotHeat]

Seashore is an open source code Photoshop, it doesn't have all the same capabilities, but it does the basic stuff really well.

http://seashore.sourceforge.net/download.php

Everything I have other than this has been mentioned.

Crazy to see how many people are ordering Mac's these days....My girlfriends new Macbook gets here Monday as well.

[Russic]

Well, I just walked my new mac from one side of the university campus to the other. Pretty sure my arm was going to tear off my body at the half way point ... it was a little heavier than I suspected.

Now I'm all ready to be a pretentious mac user! I'd better start working on the look I'll use when anybody tells me they use a pc. I'm going to start with this:

[cheung31]

So did you get an iMac?

[Russic]

I've spent the last two days getting everything configured. I still need to grab the Adobe Creative Suite, but I'm pretty much where I need to be. Thanks to everyone who mentioned the VLC media player. I can play files that I forgotten I'd even had on my pc (because they didn't work and for whatever reason I didn't erase them).

[greerb]

Not much that hasn't been said before in other posts. I have been using a mac for at least 5 years or so.

These are the programs I use regularly.
Open/Neo Office
Transmission (Bit Torrent)
Cabos (P2P)
HandBrake (DVD ripping)
VLC

BTW welcome to the dark side.

[badradio]

Is Neo Office better than Open Office? I find Open Office buggy as hell, just wondering if Neo Office has fixed those bugs... plus the interface on Open Office is ugly... Just wondering what the differences are...

[greerb]

http://neowiki.neooffice.org/index.p...ure_Comparison

Here is a good link at the difference.

[badradio]

Thanks... yeah, way better than Open Office!