Most useful OSX Programs ?

Paddy

Paddy

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Howdie folks,

Should be getting my new MacBookPro next week and am just wondering what are the best programs for the likes of video playback (AVI's etc) and downloading Torrents ?

Already got my hands on the CS3 Master Suite but heard it don't work too good on Leopard but heard from somewhere else that Tiger still comes installed with the option to update to Leopard ?

Any other nifty programs that can make my life easier ?

Finally, any links to stores where I can buy more Mac Compatible RAM ?

Cheers all !
 
Video playback: Quicktime or VLC
Torrents: Azureus or Acquisition
Mac Compatible RAM: they use the same DDR2 sticks every other modern laptop uses.

You might want to check out Miro as well. It's an internet video player with a focus on RSS feeds and torrents. You basically set up "channels" (RSS feeds or youtube/gvideo/revver/etc. searches) which then download new videos as they come out. Kinda like Joost, only without DRM.
 
VLC is great for video playback of just about anything.

Azureus works really well.

Don't buy Apple's RAM. Apple uses the same RAM as other computer makers. If you must have the type of RAM that they use, Apple Authorized stores sell it, and it's still cheaper than to have a Genius do it.

Adium is THE must-have chat program, if you use instant messenger.
Colloquy is a beautiful IRC program.
iStat Pro is a useful dashboard widget to keep tabs on your system.
VMware Fusion is the program if you want to run Windows or Linux inside of OS X. (Better than Parallels, IMO).
Panic's Transmit for FTP.

I'd also spring for the full version of QuickTime. It's more useful than you'd initially think.

The Macbook Pro I purchased a month ago still had Tiger pre-installed with the Leopard drop-in DVD. However, new Macbooks have Leopard pre-installed, and anything from Apple.com has Leopard pre-installed.

I would say, if you have mission critical use of your Mac (you're a graphics designer in Creative Suite, for example) or some other business need, I'd still hold off on Leopard. At least check to make sure the apps you are going to use everyday are Leopard-compatible. Also, some obscure printer brands (My network Oki laser, for example) doesn't have Leopard-compatible drivers.

But for general use in a normal home / work environment, Leopard is nice. If you can get it pre-installed, it's better because the upgrade takes about 45 minutes (if you skip the DVD check, which you shouldn't do the first time), which is time wasted if you are immediately making the leap to Leopard.

Also, if you need the computer, buy it now, but Macworld is in less than a month and El Jobso may announce something that makes you regret your purchase today. If such things are important to you...
 
Adium for IM. Absolutely the best.
iStat Pro is one of the best widgets available. Also, if you're planning on doing video work or heavy photo editing, get smcFanControl. It allows you to set a lower threshold for your fans turning on, keeping your system cooler.
I use Fetch for FTP, because the student version is free, and it does everything I need it to. Cyberduck is good as well.
Get Joost for internet TV. It's awesome... and has a Ministry of Sound channel :)
Vienna is great for RSS feeds.
And I use Transmission for torrents.
 
Adium for AOL/MSN/Yahoo Messenger
X-Chat Aqua for IRC
Firefox/Camino for Internet Browsing (Safari crashes on FinalGear... no real reason)
VLC for Video Playback.
Tomato Torrent for Torrent files. Built off of the official BitTorrent client, but has a much smaller foot print.
Acorn for a Photoshop like image editor.
NeoOffice if iWork doesn't cut it.
DivX video player for DivX/XviD playback.
 
You dont need Apple-Special ram, as Apple hardware is now based on Intel. The Macbook Pro already ship with 2GB (1GBx2) and that is alot. If you really want 4GB, i would look at newegg.com, and here is a link of ram that will fit in your mac: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1052910525+1309221136&name=DDR2+667+(PC2+5300)

As for software.. Umm the must have is Parallel for me if you need to run those Windows app.
 
I bought RAM for my new Macbook from Crucial for about a month ago for $150. The RAM is the same RAM you'd get from Apple, but it's less than 25% of the price Apple charges. Being in Europe though i'm not sure how prices translate, or if international shipping + Tax kills some of the price benefit.

As for software, the suggestions set out above are good ones. I personally use Adium, istatpro, and safari. I also have a license for textmate, because I like it for writing code.
 
VLC works great, but for WMV's i find that QT with the flip4mac plugin works best

you'll want perian (i think thats it) so u can play .mkv files with QT as well.

safari is pretty good, but i would maybe sway over to FF or Opera. theyre not without their problems though. Opera locks your passwords away so that you can never find them, which is great while it remembers them, but if you say reinstall OSX or switch to a new machine you have to dig around and transfer the password file. at least FF lets you view the passwords!

FF i use simply because i was so used to it on windows, its exactly the same on mac, however i dont think its quite up to scratch. sometimes it takes a lot of memory and a lot of CPU time and often beach balls on you for longish periods of time. the new safari is actually very nice to use and seems really quick and stable and i havent found a site that doesnt work with it (unlike Opera where numerous sites simply didnt work at all such as Oranges pass word retrival)

i use Transmission for torrents and it works great

carbon copy cloner is a great back up utility....though if u get leopard your sorted with time machine really

iStat pro is a must if you like to see whats going on, in, out etc on your mac

Adium is the best IM program IMO, it doesnt have webcam support yet unlike others like mercury messenger (which just looks clumsy) or aMSN (which is a very sluggish program that doesnt seem very optimized)

cyberduck is good for FTP's

smcFanControl is another must

Divx Converter ( i was lucky and got some completely free divx converter keys from the guys at divx when they first launched this for mac! so i have the fully blown version for nothing!, ill see if i can remember where i put the other keys and you can have one)

obviously you neeed things like CS2/3 and final cut pro.... dont ask where i got mine tho

parallels or VMware Fusion.... both do essentially the same task, provide Virtual Machines with which to run guest OS's like XP, Vista or Linux. some say that VMware is actually the better product, and i think it is, at least it allows the VM to use dual core whereas parallels doesnt. but i got parallels with my mac before i even knew VMware existed and for what i do (microsoft office and VB mostly) it works a treat.

so yeah if you havent bought one or the other, i think id go with VMware, but if you bought parallels then i say that VMware isnt so much better that you'd cut your losses with parallels.

and yeah, dont spec up the ram on apples shop, go to crucial its soooo much cheaper
 
Last edited:
Clegg said:
Adium for AOL/MSN/Yahoo Messenger
X-Chat Aqua for IRC
Firefox/Camino for Internet Browsing (Safari crashes on FinalGear... no real reason)
VLC for Video Playback.
Tomato Torrent for Torrent files. Built off of the official BitTorrent client, but has a much smaller foot print.
Acorn for a Photoshop like image editor.
NeoOffice if iWork doesn't cut it.
DivX video player for DivX/XviD playback.
Click to expand...

Why do you need DivX when you've got VLC.
 
Movies: Get Quicktime Pro AND VLC. There are some files QTPro won't play that VLC will. Should look into SimpleMovieX (does everything QT does + a few others and for cheaper). Also, get all the appropriate QT plug-ins, like DivX.

Torrents: Bits on Wheels (hands down the best of the bunch)

FTP Client: Fetch (been around before there was an interweb, can't go wrong with it)

Web: I use Safari and Firefox (some pages just work better in FF)

RAM: RAM is RAM nowadays, just match it up properly and you're golden.

Google some Apple-centric forums and introduce yourself, there's a plethora of friendly advice out there.
 
Also I'd like to add, get either Parallels or VMWare fusion. Lets you still keep Windows around and lets you run Windows programs seamlessly on your Mac desktop. So if there's an old Windows program you just can't live without, you can still have it.

As for the RAM, don't sweat the expensive Apple RAM, the only exception is if you get a Mac Pro tower, you've got to have RAM with sufficient heat sink cooling and in that case you should be picky (happened to me). Otherwise you should be fine with run of the mill RAM.
 
One other thing to chime in on the VMware / Parallels debate. Apparently (I'll try to find the source, heard it on Macbreak Weekly), VMware is working on a new version that will have full support of the video card on the Mac so that Aero runs in emulation, along with DX10 games. *crosses fingers*

If that's true, it probably won't be a "full version" upgrade meaning it'll be free to current owners. Might sway your decision.
 
Don't x86 macs run windows natively as well? Why monkey about with virtualization at all?
 
FATMOUSE said:
Don't x86 macs run windows natively as well? Why monkey about with virtualization at all?
Click to expand...

Yeah with bootcamp that is built in to 10.5, but, sometimes you dont want to restart and just use one or two app. Like for me I need IE a lot because of some sites dont work with Firefox/Safari.
 
Do not skimp on RAM- Macs have always been picky about the quality of memory they'll work with (read: not crash with). Don't buy anything that doesn't advertise use with Macs on the packaging, if you want to be sure (the x86 platform hasn't changed this).
 
Zuhaib said:
Yeah with bootcamp that is built in to 10.5, but, sometimes you dont want to restart and just use one or two app. Like for me I need IE a lot because of some sites dont work with Firefox/Safari.
Click to expand...

Also, it's easy to remove a virtualization rather then backing out of a partition of Boot Camp. In VMware, if your "Windows" fails, gets a virus, whatever, you just drag the one file that stores your Windows to the trash, and it's gone and you can start over.
 
The Chad said:
Also, it's easy to remove a virtualization rather then backing out of a partition of Boot Camp. In VMware, if your "Windows" fails, gets a virus, whatever, you just drag the one file that stores your Windows to the trash, and it's gone and you can start over.
Click to expand...

dont even do that, just rememeber to take snap shots every now and then and you just revert back to one that worked!

i tried bootcamp and what you can do is actually have bootcamp where u must restart and hold the option key to select windows and then boot a fully blown functioning windows but also if u have parallels you can run a VM in OSX from that windows install.

its a lot slower mind and eventually i realised the programs i used on windows ran perfectly fine in a VM so i dropped the xp partition and just installed XP as VM..... i cant believe how quickly a windows XP VM boots up, its so quick.
 
The Chad said:
One other thing to chime in on the VMware / Parallels debate. Apparently (I'll try to find the source, heard it on Macbreak Weekly), VMware is working on a new version that will have full support of the video card on the Mac so that Aero runs in emulation, along with DX10 games. *crosses fingers*

If that's true, it probably won't be a "full version" upgrade meaning it'll be free to current owners. Might sway your decision.
Click to expand...

I'm a nut and I run both.

VMWare's advantages -- it can offer virtual SMP (so it can see both cores on a dual core system). And I like their Unity mode a little better than Parallels (they integrate Start menu items into the VMWare Apple menu so you don't need both menu bars when running merged desktops). However, just last week my VMWare environment got hosed and even a reinstall isn't fixing it (grrrr, cannot connect to host process or some such). Also they allow you to use Mac key combos in Windows (like command-v instead of control-v).

I think both VMWare and Parallels are promising tighter video card integration. I know Parallels promised Aero in Windows Vista months ago. I started with Parallels so I'm pulling for them, but VMWare fusion is a good product too. It's good to have a choice, innit?
 
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