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Topic Starter Topic: Mac Starters Guide?
Turbanator
Cobalt Adrenaline
Cobalt Adrenaline
Joined: 07 Jun 1983
Posts: 31077
PostPosted: 03-20-2005 04:02 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


With the recent price drops and the launch of new entry level products like the Mac Mini, the mac community is growing faster than ever I'm sure you'll all agree.

The majority of people converting to mac will be a little dazed and confused with not really knowing where to start. Does anyone know of a good starters guide which makes recommendations and information for new beginners?

What apps do you all recommend for everyday use, I still use Safari for my web, I use webmail mainly so don't need a pop3 client and I use Adium for messenging. Ontop of all that, the iLife, Adobe Creative Suite and Mac Office Suite are all essential to me... how about you?
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Canis
canis
canis
Joined: 14 Jan 2001
Posts: 17305
PostPosted: 03-20-2005 10:56 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


My dock has:
Quicken
Pages (Apple's word processor)
iCal
Mail
Safari
Address Book
Garage Band
iTunes
Acquisition
Asureus
iPhoto
Sherlock
Terminal
QuakeMenu (because the damn thing keeps crashing)

That's the brunt of what I do on this thing. So much for milking the power of my Dual 2.5GHz beast with all the trimmings...

As far as good starter's guides, the OS X for Dummies or O'reilley's OS X books are pretty good starting points. I've been using OS X since it came out, so I'm no expert on what is most helpful...
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Zapchud the 2nd
Recruit
Recruit
Joined: 19 Mar 2005
Posts: 1
PostPosted: 03-21-2005 07:27 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


My must-haves:
  • Quicksilver (f) (Launcher, object-manipulator)
  • OmniWeb (s) (Best. Browser. Evar.)
  • Proteus (s) (Instant message client)
  • VideoLAN Client (f) (Video playback)
  • SubEthaEdit (f) (Code editor)
  • Transmit (s) (FTP client)

(f) = freeware
(s) = shareware
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NCG_Mike
The Illuminated
The Illuminated
Joined: 20 Aug 2001
Posts: 1852
PostPosted: 03-21-2005 10:15 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I guess they do one of those "For Dummies" books on OSX. Dunno any free stuff though.
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4g3nt_Smith
Mr. Anderson!
Mr. Anderson!
Joined: 15 Feb 2004
Posts: 1615
PostPosted: 03-21-2005 01:35 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Firefox (tried Camino, but it was a medicore mashup of FF and safari), Mail for Mail (tried Thunderbird, but it wouldn't intergrate into the OS like Mail did and didn't use the OS X address book) Transmit for FTP, adium for IM, Quicktime w/ plugins and a bit of VideoLAN for movies, itunes for Music and Audion for Webradio, Tomato torrent for torrents (since Azureus would cause kernel panics left and right)

The first thing you have to do when switching is throw out all those backwards ways of doing things in windows and start anew. If you don't know what something does, just try it. Most likely nothing bad will come of it, and if you try to do something bad, the OS will either not let you or warn you.
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Canis
canis
canis
Joined: 14 Jan 2001
Posts: 17305
PostPosted: 03-21-2005 01:42 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Why use audion for Webradio when iTunes has webradio as well and you also use iTunes for your music?
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4g3nt_Smith
Mr. Anderson!
Mr. Anderson!
Joined: 15 Feb 2004
Posts: 1615
PostPosted: 03-21-2005 02:44 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


audion has more stations listed, as it goes and checks a master server somewhere. IN itunes, I have to find the stream somewhere and add it to my library, or stick with the 30 odd default ones most of which suck.
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torq
Roman Conqueror
Roman Conqueror
Joined: 19 Nov 2000
Posts: 333
PostPosted: 03-25-2005 02:50 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


These are my must-haves:
  • Adium (f) (Instant message client)
  • VideoLAN Client (f) (Video playback)
  • SubEthaEdit (f) or TextWrangler (f) (Code editor)
  • Transmit (s) (FTP client)
  • Download Wizard (f) (Download manager for large downloads)

(f) = freeware
(s) = shareware

And yes, I paid for for Transmit and it's worth the money. For iPod users I also recommend Senuti (f), a tool to copy songs from iPods to the harddisks.
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nyxs-uk
Gibblet
Gibblet
Joined: 01 May 2005
Posts: 17
PostPosted: 05-02-2005 10:08 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


i'm a switcher :icon31: with a mini and i also use a PC running fedora3 (linux). so the command line is the same as unix but with a free set of good application which come with os-x i find i don't really need to use the command line much except for ftp.

I use

iTunes
Safari
Mail
Aim
Quake3
Audacity (freeware)
qucktime

I chose the system to replace my dead hifi!
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saturn
oldskool
oldskool
Joined: 06 Mar 2000
Posts: 40788
PostPosted: 05-10-2005 06:38 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


i'm still in the progress of making me comfortable in Tiger, it's going pretty good.

I'm still doubting about Camino, it runs great, it's lean and mean, but it misses the extensions of Firefox. The OS X look is great.

Still looking for something that can replace ACDsee photo browser which I use extensively on the PC, but the Mac version is an abomination and an insult to Mac users.

Some nice tips here for programs. Gonna try a few.
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NCG_Mike
The Illuminated
The Illuminated
Joined: 20 Aug 2001
Posts: 1852
PostPosted: 05-10-2005 09:15 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Okay, in my dock from left to right...

Finder (disabled)
PathFinder (I have a legal license too!)
System Preferences
Mail
Entourage (for HotMail)
Safari
NetNewsWire (I prefer it to Safari RSS)
XCode (naturally)
Interface Builder
CodeWarrior (just in case)
Shark
Terminal
Console
TextEdit
Remote Desktop Connection (so I don't have to sit near the Dull 2400)
Proteus (now redundant as I have iChat talking to MSN)
AthenaIRC (I'm old school)
iTunes
VLC
iChat
Photoshop CS
Virtual PC (sandbox)
Wolfenstein: ET
Doom 3
iPhoto

Forgot to add this, my latest app: http://homepage.mac.com/only_mortal/scr ... raSpot.jpg

If you work in serious color management you should realize what it does. It's not only D50...
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Keep It Real
PostPosted: 06-30-2005 12:05 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


just use firefox for the internet, itunes for music. if you need anything else just search for it in google (mac ftp). why would you get dazed and confused using a different OS. Its really nothing different.
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4g3nt_Smith
Mr. Anderson!
Mr. Anderson!
Joined: 15 Feb 2004
Posts: 1615
PostPosted: 06-30-2005 01:14 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Keep It Real wrote:
just use firefox for the internet, itunes for music. if you need anything else just search for it in google (mac ftp). why would you get dazed and confused using a different OS. Its really nothing different.


aside from the fact FF sucks on OS X, the idiot's right for once.
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Keep It Real
PostPosted: 06-30-2005 01:35 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


agent smith you faggot :lol:

i know it hurts your heart...
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NCG_Mike
The Illuminated
The Illuminated
Joined: 20 Aug 2001
Posts: 1852
PostPosted: 06-30-2005 02:40 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I don't think FireFox is bad on OSX, a bit goofy for sure, but not bad. I have it installed as a curiosity, though I only really use it on Windows to avoid the IE exploits.
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saturn
oldskool
oldskool
Joined: 06 Mar 2000
Posts: 40788
PostPosted: 06-30-2005 03:20 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Sometimes I use Firefox for the extensions like Bookmark Synchronizer, which will upload the bookmarks to a file on my webspace which I can download again to Firefox on my PC.

And to sync bookmarks between all the browsers on my mac (Safari, FF, Camino) I use BookIt.
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NCG_Mike
The Illuminated
The Illuminated
Joined: 20 Aug 2001
Posts: 1852
PostPosted: 06-30-2005 03:28 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I really used Safari on the Mac and do sync with .Mac to the PowerBook. It's just a shame the two Windows systems I have are incompatible.
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saturn
oldskool
oldskool
Joined: 06 Mar 2000
Posts: 40788
PostPosted: 06-30-2005 03:34 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


p.s. I've found a program that will sync contact, calendar, tasks and files between Mac, PC and Linux.

Xchange Netwerk
http://www.xcnetwork.com/index.jsp

It's basically some sort of Exchange server and you can try it out for 30 days, after that you will have to pay a few hundred bucks :(
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zeeko
It's Sabotage!
It's Sabotage!
Joined: 07 Jul 2000
Posts: 1643
PostPosted: 06-30-2005 08:07 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


i like firefox a bit better than safari, other than that i have, quickbooks, photoship elements, tomato torrent, keynote, xfactor, quickbooks pro, oggdrop. i would highly recommend not using limewire i've heard that it can be pretty nasty to your mac..



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