new MacBook new to Mac

Pt3000

Junior Member
Jun 19, 2004
7
0
0
Hey guys,

I just made the leap, my new macbook and ipod (both firsts) are in the air on the way to my doorstep. I am a pretty savvy long time PC users, but as friends and family have had macs over the years, even got to play with some occasionally (mostly when they broke em) while I never felt the need to switch, i could always appreciate the build quality, intuitiveness, and just drop dead sexy design. So the deal is done, I did it. The next question what are some things, apps that i should get no questions asked out the box. I realize as im writing this, that perhaps im still thinking in the PC frame of mind, where when i previously received a new PC i had to essentially gut the damn thing to get it working up to my snuff! While im already sure this will be a completely new experience for me, i just thought i'd ask some of the mac vets around here,

cheers,
-P
 

aphex

Moderator<br>All Things Apple
Moderator
Jul 19, 2001
38,572
2
91
Welcome to the family! :)

Well the first bit of good news is that apple's don't come with all that crapware your used to, the apps out of the box are all fairly kickass compared to most other offerings.

The apps that come with the system
iLife Suite - iPhoto/iWeb/iTunes/iMovie/iDvd/Garageband are all excellent apps (though iMovie has been dumbed down a bit too much from the previous gen for some)

Mail - A superb mail application, no real need to look elsewhere

Safari - Again, an excellent speedy web browser, though many still switch to Firefox to get additional extensions. I've personally found Firefox on OSX to be a bit buggy (DNS Issues), so I always end up back in Safari.


The apps and stuff to add (some free, some not)
Adium - iChat is pretty good, especially with the Chax addon, but Adium still beats it IMO due to its amazing customizability and tons of different protocol support. Only downside to adium is it doesn't support any video chatting so you need to go back to iChat for that. Free.

Flip4Mac - Allows you to playback WMV (windows encoded video files which unfortunately is often used) on your mac. Free.

Transmit - Arguably the best FTP app ever created. Not free.

AppDelete - On a mac, normally you just drag the app to the trash to delete it (no uninstall like on windows), but usually a few tiny preference files are left behind. With AppDelete, just drag the app to the AppDelete window and it deletes all the small preference files as well. Free.

Handbrake - Best tool IMO for ripping dvd's for storage on your mac, or to resize and re-encode for use on your iPod Touch. Free.
 

Megatomic

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
20,127
6
81
Hi Pt3000. As a recent switcher I can recommend the following to you:

Chat - Adium

Browser - Camino

Office - NeoOffice

CD Ripping - Max

Those were the programs that helped me make the switch. Other members will have different options for you to try also. As aphex said, welcome to the family. :thumbsup:
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
12,089
45
91
Get Perian so you can watch almost anything through Quicktime (and by extension, Front Row)
Get VLC for the few files that just don't work right even with Perian

The other recommendations are solid.
 

sourceninja

Diamond Member
Mar 8, 2005
8,805
65
91
The first thing I think mac users should do is setup an Admin account and then log into that account and remove admin status from their 'main' account. This is good from a security standpoint and recommended by apple. After that, this is my list of must have software.

VLC - free video player
Handbreak - free dvd to mpeg converter
TextMate - not free, but AWESOME text editor for programing
CyberDuck - free semi decent ftp client
Adium - best chat program ever
AppCleaner - free, my favorite program for uninstalling apps, widgits, and more
Transmission - free, everybody needs bittorrent at some point.
BusySync - not free, allows google calendar and iCal syncing. I am also looking at some other software that does the same thing.
TrueCrypt - free, I need encrypted containers for my private data
Growl - free, this will probably get autoinstalled by something above, but it is a useful notification system. I also use growltunes which comes with growl.
Firefox3 - free, I use this mostly for testing. I prefer safari.
Xcode - not only because I am a programer and want to write mac apps, but because it installs all the build tools you could ever need for doing most any kind of programing.
iWork - not free, but cheap and a very good application suite for most everyday office tasks. If you need full MS compatibility, I suggest MS Office 2008. I can not suggest Open office until Open office 3 is released.
SimplyBurns - Sure you can use Disk Utility to burn ISO's and you can use burn folders to burn files. but simply burns is just so easy to use. I high recommend this app.
Unarchiver - great little tool for decompressing formats apple does not support.
iStat Pro - great dashboard widget that will show you everything you ever wanted to know about your hardware (ram usage, hard drive info, battery health, temps, cpu usage, etc)

Software I've tried but did not like:
Coda - seemed great, turned out to not be as powerful as I am used too. This is a all in one web programing editor.
FileZilla - I love it on windows and linux, not so great on a mac, very buggy. FTP client


That is a good chunk of what I am using now. I also have a few suggestions for your setup.

1) Flatten your dock. This is a personal thing. I can't stand the 3d dock. I just can't tell what apps are running. I like it flattened. Do do that (on a per user basis) just open the terminal and type in
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
killall Dock
a) To put it back to 3d replace the Yes with NO and run the 2 commands again.

2) As I said before, make an admin account and remove admin status off of your account before you do anything. You will never need to login to this account again. OSX will prompt you for the Username and password for this admin account to do any actions that require 'root' privileges. This will help protect you from the world and yourself.

3) First, when you open safari, go into preferences (command key and comma) and turn off "Open files with safe extentions". If you do not, things you download can be automatically opened. Which is just annoying.

4) Pick a good short name. The short name is going to be used for your 'home' directory. This is where you store all of your personal files. This is a pain in the ass to change, so pick something you want to keep forever. I made the mistake the first time of letting it use my full name. That was a pain.

5) Create a applications folder inside your Users/username folder. This is a great way to test apps before you deploy them for all users to use. If the program is not secure you only compromise your users files, not the entire system. If you like the program you can then just install it in the normal system applications folder. Installing and removing apps is very easy as you will see.

6) Lean the command line and a scripting language. This will help you in the long run, I promise. Also take some time to learn applescript and automator. They are life savers.

7) Turn on the firewall. Go set it to allow by application, the firewall will ask you when you try to use a network app. Simply supply the admin accounts username/password.

8) Turn on right mouse buttons and two finger tapping. Right click is awesome, so don't forget to turn it on.

10) Set the control panel to lock and unlock per panel. This is more secure, if you forget to lock a panel, only that panel will be insecure not your entire control panel.

9) Get a firewire/usb drive and setup Time Machine. This is a great backup app.
a) Exclude folders with large amounts of data that you do not care if you lose.
b) I prefer a entire system back up so I can restore a working system from time machine, but others exclude everything but their Users folders.

That is all I can think of at the moment, I'm going on a month with my mac and those are the tips I have for starting out.





 

Megatomic

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
20,127
6
81
Pt3000, one more app I think really works great on my Blackbook - Joost! With Joost you can watch TV shows, music videos, movies, sports, etc... It's come a long way in the time I've been using it. I use it so much I put it in my dock for my convenience. There is a windows client, too.
 

KeithP

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2000
5,662
199
106
Originally posted by: Kmax82
I recommend 1Password. The tool I use the most aside from all the included apps. :)

I just started using this a few weeks ago and would also recommend it. Great little application!

-KeithP
 

Esquire

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
1,372
0
71
watch all the video tutorials on apple.com

os x tutorial, iLife tutorial, all and the tip of the week video podcast

all free and sweet