Must have Programs for a new Mac Switcher

bbusybookworm · 09-06-2009, 02:01 PM

Well, after alot of research and Soul searching, I've decided that my next laptop is going to be a Macbook Pro 13".

While I'll have preferred a few more ports and a user replaceable battery, the combination of performance and price (15% Student discount + £46 completecare) has definitely tilted the choice in Apple's favour.

I'll be placing the order after the 9th so that i don't run into any surprises if Apple announces any changes at the event.

Now, as someone who is completely new to OSX and to Apple in General, what I wanted to ask members who are current users what are the must have Programs, etc to get.

I'm definately going to be running Windows 7 in bootcamp, so I'm looking for a virtulisation program which will be able to use the Bootcamp partion. While VMware and Parrallels bot claim to do so, which offers a better experience.

As I'm going to sharing a lot of files with Office Users, Should I get Office for Mac or just run my current Office 2007 in virtulisation?

Also, I'm going to need to read and write to ntfs volumes pretty regularly,so is Paragon NTFS for Mac the only game in town,or ar there other alternatives. Also, how can you writ to HFS/HFS+ volumes from windows?

Appreciate any Tips and recommendations .

Moejoe · 09-06-2009, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

Well, after alot of research and Soul searching, I've decided that my next laptop is going to be a Macbook Pro 13".

While I'll have preferred a few more ports and a user replaceable battery, the combination of performance and price (15% Student discount + £46 completecare) has definitely tilted the choice in Apple's favour.

I'll be placing the order after the 9th so that i don't run into any surprises if Apple announces any changes at the event.

Now, as someone who is completely new to OSX and to Apple in General, what I wanted to ask members who are current users what are the must have Programs, etc to get.

I'm definately going to be running Windows 7 in bootcamp, so I'm looking for a virtulisation program which will be able to use the Bootcamp partion. While VMware and Parrallels bot claim to do so, which offers a better experience.

As I'm going to sharing a lot of files with Office Users, Should I get Office for Mac or just run my current Office 2007 in virtulisation?

Also, I'm going to need to read and write to ntfs volumes pretty regularly,so is Paragon NTFS for Mac the only game in town,or ar there other alternatives. Also, how can you writ to HFS/HFS+ volumes from windows?

Appreciate any Tips and recommendations .

There's a free NTFS writing plugin for OSX called NTFS-3g (pretty straightforward) http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/

Bean for OSX is a free word-processor (pretty compatible with .doc and .docx) http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html

Virutalbox is a free VM solution for OSX (not sure about using bootcamp partition though) http://www.virtualbox.org/

I gave up on OSX (too restrictive) but there's plenty of good free stuff for it

Hope some of these are useful.

ShortNCuddlyAm · 09-06-2009, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

Now, as someone who is completely new to OSX and to Apple in General, what I wanted to ask members who are current users what are the must have Programs, etc to get.

Things I'd not want to be without now:
Scrivener for writing
OmniFocus for organisation
1Password for, erm, passwords
Twitterific for Twitter
Calibre for my ebooks
Art Rage & Lineform for graphics
Rapidweaver for website design
Lightroom for photography
Adium for IM

Quote:

I'm definately going to be running Windows 7 in bootcamp, so I'm looking for a virtulisation program which will be able to use the Bootcamp partion. While VMware and Parrallels bot claim to do so, which offers a better experience.

I prefer VMWare, the yeti prefers Parallels - although is thinking of giving VMWare a try.

Quote:

As I'm going to sharing a lot of files with Office Users, Should I get Office for Mac or just run my current Office 2007 in virtulisation?

How complex are the documents going to be? For simple Word & Excel (don't use Powerpoint if I can possibly help it) then iWork is fine. Or OpenOffice. Anything complex, I'd stick with your current Office 2k7 in a vm.

Juliette · 09-07-2009, 01:42 AM

Welcome to Mac

Quicksilver. Even if I'm trying to wean myself off it until it's fully compatible with Snow Leopard (might already be, mind you- hope to find out soon

)

I add myself to the line in praise given by ShortNCuddlyAm for Twitterrific. Lot of customisation AND still you can use it with ads for free, which is not always the case for a lot of programs anymore (and no, the ads aren't that space-wasting...)

For Office- try to play a bit with all programs. At the beginning I used to use the Office for Mac suite (it was 2004, hey!

used it until 2006), but mostly the excellent Textedit, the standard editor provided with OS X (it was a lot more barebone than its now). Used to have iWork since it came out, fell in and out of love, going to come back there with '09. I didn't like Bean much (lasted a couple of months), but it was surely better than NeoOffice (too slow) and OpenOffice (I need to write a paper, not to program the thing...).

So test them and use them according to your needs and habits; .doc and .rtf files are both a good choice in that first phase, since it's what runs everywhere. Afterwards, if you choose a not-.doc based application, you can easily convert. Mind that in sharing you don't give the poor Windows user an RFTD (I remember having some from Bean days), because it's a format not supported as a file, it will read as a directory.

Ah, and for any uninstalling need (so that you won't have many orphaned files around, once you've dropped the icon in the trashbin): AppCleaner. Works marvellously. Drag-and-Drop, give the ok, go back to the finder and empty trash

bbusybookworm · 09-07-2009, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moejoe

There's a free NTFS writing plugin for OSX called NTFS-3g (pretty straightforward) http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/

Virutalbox is a free VM solution for OSX (not sure about using bootcamp partition though) http://www.virtualbox.org/

I'll definitely check out NTFS-3G. the only concer I had was whether or not it was compatible with Snow Leopard, But Paragon looks to be having similar issues. Will See.

Virtualbox is nice, but pretty barebones, and with Bootcamp support being a priority, paying for one of the Big boys is probably worth it in my case. But will definitely check it out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Things I'd not want to be without now:
Twitterific for Twitter
Calibre for my ebooks
Art Rage & Lineform for graphics
Rapidweaver for website design
Lightroom for photography
Adium for IM

Definately on my list

of programs to get or look at.

I'm really curious to see how lightroom is, that as while I have Gigs and gigs of Photos in both Jpeg and RAW, I manage them all manually, which can be a bit of a pain, when managing multiple versions of the same photograph.

Quote:

I prefer VMWare, the yeti prefers Parallels - although is thinking of giving VMWare a try.

Can I ask why you prefer it over Parallels. While I'm leaning towards VMware a little (Dur to cross platform support for Virtual machines) but am looking at parrallels for the claimed speed benefits.

Quote:

How complex are the documents going to be? For simple Word & Excel (don't use Powerpoint if I can possibly help it) then iWork is fine. Or OpenOffice. Anything complex, I'd stick with your current Office 2k7 in a vm.

Quiet a lot of complex Word Docs, while need to be proofed for printing, and a ton of complex linked excel sheets (Working partially as as an assistant accountant)

I'm getting the iWork suiet to see if I can do some of thesimple stuff in it, and only need excel for the complex stuff, but will have to see. The main reason I was thinking of getting the Mac version was becausi i'll be able to get it for Academic pricing for the next couple of months, so, £40/$65 may be well worth paying for native support.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juliette

Welcome to Mac

Quicksilver. Even if I'm trying to wean myself off it until it's fully compatible with Snow Leopard (might already be, mind you- hope to find out soon

)

Quote:

I add myself to the line in praise given by ShortNCuddlyAm for Twitterrific. Lot of customisation AND still you can use it with ads for free, which is not always the case for a lot of programs anymore (and no, the ads aren't that space-wasting...)

I'm probably going to be trying out all the twitter programs, as I'm a tech news junkie and am constantly on twitter following a ton of people

Quote:

Ah, and for any uninstalling need (so that you won't have many orphaned files around, once you've dropped the icon in the trashbin): AppCleaner. Works marvellously. Drag-and-Drop, give the ok, go back to the finder and empty trash

Thanks. Run into too many problems in Windows with bad entries and leftovers, so will definitely try to avoid the same in OSX.

ShortNCuddlyAm · 09-07-2009, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

I'm really curious to see how lightroom is, that as while I have Gigs and gigs of Photos in both Jpeg and RAW, I manage them all manually, which can be a bit of a pain, when managing multiple versions of the same photograph.

I think you can still get it as a 30 day trial

Quote:

Can I ask why you prefer it over Parallels. While I'm leaning towards VMware a little (Dur to cross platform support for Virtual machines) but am looking at parrallels for the claimed speed benefits.

I found VMWare to be a bit more stable when I tried them both - this was about 2 or 3 years back though!

Quote:

Quiet a lot of complex Word Docs, while need to be proofed for printing, and a ton of complex linked excel sheets (Working partially as as an assistant accountant)

I'm getting the iWork suiet to see if I can do some of thesimple stuff in it, and only need excel for the complex stuff, but will have to see. The main reason I was thinking of getting the Mac version was becausi i'll be able to get it for Academic pricing for the next couple of months, so, £40/$65 may be well worth paying for native support.

For that price, I'd be tempted! I seem to recall Excel for the Mac doesn't support VBA macros though - which might be something to consider (it was a big issue for me when I first moved to the mac at home)

artifact · 09-07-2009, 06:13 PM

The one thing on my must have list I haven't seen mentioned is backup. I use Memeo's LifeAgent. It'll work non-apple storage devices and it backs up your files as they change (vs. Time Machine which does time-based backups.) My mac's HD went bad on me just last week and I also killed 5 or 6 notebooks before I went mac with its blessed magnetic power chord attachment. Trust me in saying nothing beats a backup

.

I have VMWare and find it bloatly and horribly slow and never use it anymore -- its not worth the headache. Just to open it takes ages and it'd suck up most of my notebook's RAM. Most of the time I use wine, or specifically CodeWeaver's CrossOver which is still wine but a lot more painless. CrossOver has Adobe Photoshop, IE, Excel, Lotus Noes, EndNote, MS Office, Outlook, Powerpoint, Visio, Quickbooks, etc in its 'supported' list that pops up when you install new Windows software so in theory they work. Might be worth giving it a test while you are trying VMWare and Parallels.

Another advantage of the wine route is everything is stored directly onto your system vs. inside an image as with VMWare. So you can easily drag and drop files around, save it from or attach to email, etc.

AlfonsVH · 09-07-2009, 06:35 PM

Some programs I use quite a lot:

1Password (password management)
Adium (IM)
Coda (web development)
CrushFTP (FTP server)
DEVONthink (information manager)
Mellel (word processor)
Parallels Desktop (virtualization - haven't tried VMWare so I don't know how it compares)
Pixelmator (image editing)
Skim (pdf viewer & annotator)
The Hit List (GTD app)

For backup I use Time Machine.

bbusybookworm · 09-07-2009, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

For that price, I'd be tempted! I seem to recall Excel for the Mac doesn't support VBA macros though - which might be something to consider (it was a big issue for me when I first moved to the mac at home)

Well, Software4Students have a lot of great deals, and the best part is that they don't require you to have a .ac email address or even a NUS card.

Its open to all school, Collage, Higher Education students / Parents / Educators so is definitely open to most.

I'm actually thinking of getting a couple of extra licences of office for my older machines. Office 2007 Enterprise for £35 is darn nearly free.

montsnmags · 09-08-2009, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

...
I'm really curious to see how lightroom is, that as while I have Gigs and gigs of Photos in both Jpeg and RAW, I manage them all manually, which can be a bit of a pain, when managing multiple versions of the same photograph.
...

Apple's rival to Lightroom, Aperture, might also be worth a look-see. It too has a 30-day free trial. Rumours are that a significant update to it may be imminent, perhaps held off pending the recent Snow Leopard release. I use Aperture extensively, enjoying its image-management (I tend to use "keywords" a lot, and then "Smart albums" from that) and "multiple versions" of photos (with non-destructive edits), rarely having to go to an external editor for further post-production. There are numerous "plug-ins" you can buy for it too, including the popular ones (eg. Sharpener Pro, Genuine Fractals, Noise Ninja, PT Lens), though I have yet to purchase any.

I recently had these three printed by a decent online printer:

(uploaded 1821x2578 pixels printed at 8x12")
http://www.parknmeter.com/gallery/ma...?g2_itemId=216

(uploaded 2040x2888 pixels) printed at 10x14")
http://www.parknmeter.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=92

(uploaded 5303x3744 pixels) printed at 25x18")
http://www.parknmeter.com/gallery/ma...?g2_itemId=260

and all post-production was done in Aperture. (FWIW, the external editor I'd go to if I needed it is Gimp)

Cheers,
Marc

bbusybookworm · 09-11-2009, 04:38 PM

Well, Placed my order for a 13" Macbook Pro (2.53Ghz/4GB/500GB) after the Wednesday event, as I did not want any buyers remorse

.

Managed to got decent price, £1210 including 3yrs Applecare, and will probably get it by Monday or Tuesday, as it has already been dispached.

On the software side, I've ordered iWork on it and will see how it goes for simple work, before deciding on whether or not to order Office 2008.

I've decided to go with VMware fusion for now, as from what I could find, its a littel more stable with Bootcamp. Plus Amazon had it on sale for £35 with free delievary, compared to £40 for both Parallels and VMware at Apple.

Once I get it, and get some of the basics sorted, I'll tryout some the programs that have been recommended, especially Aperture and Lightroom.

ShortNCuddlyAm · 09-11-2009, 06:32 PM

Good luck with it!

bbusybookworm · 09-17-2009, 03:00 PM

Well just got My hands on my New Macbook a couple of hours ago, and so far I'm liking the experience.

Still running into a few "where the hell is that" but that was expected as15 years of Windows muscle memory is a little hard to overcome

Gota few of the basics installed, i.e Firefox with Xmarks, Skype, Adium, etc so I can get used to the system a little before porting everything.

NTFS-3g and bootcamp (Win7) are next on the schedule tonight, so lets see how it goes

09-06-2009, 02:01 PM	#1
bbusybookworm Tech Junkie Posts: 1,027 Karma: 10080 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Earth Device: iPad, MotoXStyle, OnePlusOne	Must have Programs for a new Mac Switcher Well, after alot of research and Soul searching, I've decided that my next laptop is going to be a Macbook Pro 13". While I'll have preferred a few more ports and a user replaceable battery, the combination of performance and price (15% Student discount + £46 completecare) has definitely tilted the choice in Apple's favour. I'll be placing the order after the 9th so that i don't run into any surprises if Apple announces any changes at the event. Now, as someone who is completely new to OSX and to Apple in General, what I wanted to ask members who are current users what are the must have Programs, etc to get. I'm definately going to be running Windows 7 in bootcamp, so I'm looking for a virtulisation program which will be able to use the Bootcamp partion. While VMware and Parrallels bot claim to do so, which offers a better experience. As I'm going to sharing a lot of files with Office Users, Should I get Office for Mac or just run my current Office 2007 in virtulisation? Also, I'm going to need to read and write to ntfs volumes pretty regularly,so is Paragon NTFS for Mac the only game in town,or ar there other alternatives. Also, how can you writ to HFS/HFS+ volumes from windows? Appreciate any Tips and recommendations .

09-07-2009, 06:35 PM	#8
AlfonsVH Addict Posts: 253 Karma: 2113226 Join Date: Jun 2008 Device: BeBook Neo	Some programs I use quite a lot: 1Password (password management) Adium (IM) Coda (web development) CrushFTP (FTP server) DEVONthink (information manager) Mellel (word processor) Parallels Desktop (virtualization - haven't tried VMWare so I don't know how it compares) Pixelmator (image editing) Skim (pdf viewer & annotator) The Hit List (GTD app) For backup I use Time Machine. Last edited by AlfonsVH; 09-07-2009 at 06:41 PM.

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09-07-2009, 01:42 AM	#4
Juliette I eat books Posts: 601 Karma: 5124 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Milan, Italy Device: Gen3 PRS-505 PRS-600 PB360 PB302 K2 Opus BebookMini OnyxBoox K3 KDXG	Welcome to Mac Quicksilver. Even if I'm trying to wean myself off it until it's fully compatible with Snow Leopard (might already be, mind you- hope to find out soon ) I add myself to the line in praise given by ShortNCuddlyAm for Twitterrific. Lot of customisation AND still you can use it with ads for free, which is not always the case for a lot of programs anymore (and no, the ads aren't that space-wasting...) For Office- try to play a bit with all programs. At the beginning I used to use the Office for Mac suite (it was 2004, hey! used it until 2006), but mostly the excellent Textedit, the standard editor provided with OS X (it was a lot more barebone than its now). Used to have iWork since it came out, fell in and out of love, going to come back there with '09. I didn't like Bean much (lasted a couple of months), but it was surely better than NeoOffice (too slow) and OpenOffice (I need to write a paper, not to program the thing...). So test them and use them according to your needs and habits; .doc and .rtf files are both a good choice in that first phase, since it's what runs everywhere. Afterwards, if you choose a not-.doc based application, you can easily convert. Mind that in sharing you don't give the poor Windows user an RFTD (I remember having some from Bean days), because it's a format not supported as a file, it will read as a directory. Ah, and for any uninstalling need (so that you won't have many orphaned files around, once you've dropped the icon in the trashbin): AppCleaner. Works marvellously. Drag-and-Drop, give the ok, go back to the finder and empty trash

09-07-2009, 06:13 PM	#7
artifact Addict Posts: 276 Karma: 3569616 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: jetBook (RIP), Kobo Touch	The one thing on my must have list I haven't seen mentioned is backup. I use Memeo's LifeAgent. It'll work non-apple storage devices and it backs up your files as they change (vs. Time Machine which does time-based backups.) My mac's HD went bad on me just last week and I also killed 5 or 6 notebooks before I went mac with its blessed magnetic power chord attachment. Trust me in saying nothing beats a backup . I have VMWare and find it bloatly and horribly slow and never use it anymore -- its not worth the headache. Just to open it takes ages and it'd suck up most of my notebook's RAM. Most of the time I use wine, or specifically CodeWeaver's CrossOver which is still wine but a lot more painless. CrossOver has Adobe Photoshop, IE, Excel, Lotus Noes, EndNote, MS Office, Outlook, Powerpoint, Visio, Quickbooks, etc in its 'supported' list that pops up when you install new Windows software so in theory they work. Might be worth giving it a test while you are trying VMWare and Parallels. Another advantage of the wine route is everything is stored directly onto your system vs. inside an image as with VMWare. So you can easily drag and drop files around, save it from or attach to email, etc.

09-11-2009, 04:38 PM	#11
bbusybookworm Tech Junkie Posts: 1,027 Karma: 10080 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Earth Device: iPad, MotoXStyle, OnePlusOne	Well, Placed my order for a 13" Macbook Pro (2.53Ghz/4GB/500GB) after the Wednesday event, as I did not want any buyers remorse . Managed to got decent price, £1210 including 3yrs Applecare, and will probably get it by Monday or Tuesday, as it has already been dispached. On the software side, I've ordered iWork on it and will see how it goes for simple work, before deciding on whether or not to order Office 2008. I've decided to go with VMware fusion for now, as from what I could find, its a littel more stable with Bootcamp. Plus Amazon had it on sale for £35 with free delievary, compared to £40 for both Parallels and VMware at Apple. Once I get it, and get some of the basics sorted, I'll tryout some the programs that have been recommended, especially Aperture and Lightroom.

09-11-2009, 06:32 PM	#12
ShortNCuddlyAm WWHALD Posts: 7,879 Karma: 337114 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Mitcham, Surrey, UK Device: iPad. Selling my silver 505 here	Good luck with it!

09-17-2009, 03:00 PM	#13
bbusybookworm Tech Junkie Posts: 1,027 Karma: 10080 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Earth Device: iPad, MotoXStyle, OnePlusOne	Well just got My hands on my New Macbook a couple of hours ago, and so far I'm liking the experience. Still running into a few "where the hell is that" but that was expected as15 years of Windows muscle memory is a little hard to overcome Gota few of the basics installed, i.e Firefox with Xmarks, Skype, Adium, etc so I can get used to the system a little before porting everything. NTFS-3g and bootcamp (Win7) are next on the schedule tonight, so lets see how it goes