New to Mac need Help

Hello. I am new to Mac OSX and have been Windows user for a very long time. I use a lot of different software and hardware on Windows and would like help for any Mac Version. I bought a Mac Mini just to get me started and then hope to buy a Macbook Pro 15 inch Unibody.

The Mac Mini has Tiger with the latest update and I think its 10.4.11 or something like that. The new laptop will have Leopard, so not sure about the compatability between Tiger and Leopard.


Word Processing/Spreadsheet etc

I normally use MS Office and occasionally Open Office. For the Mac I found Neo Office which is good, also iWork/Pages is good, are there any other software which are similar. I am looking for free software but I dont mind if you list any commercial software that way I can decide better.

Video/Music Players etc

I prefer Windows Media Player becuase of its simple design and easy to add on different Codecs which are required. On the Mac I have Quicktime which I think I need to purchase full license to use it, I also have Real Media player. I generally play media files which are .flv .divx .mp4 .avi , what siftware is best in comparison to Windows Media Player which can play anything in general.


Video/Music Converters and Editors

For Windows I use many, some to convert DVDs to .avi or PSP format or to convert video files into DVD format. Also I have software which can edit videos and cut/mix videos etc. What are the best ones for the Mac?
Also I have music in wma format and have software which can convert them into mp3/rm etc are there any good ones for the Mac?

Rar/Zip

I normally use Winrar and 7-Zip, What ar ethe best compression software for the Mac?

Instant Messaging

I use MSN, what is the best all round,Instant messaging program for Mac?

Bowsers

At work I use IE6 beucase of the websites we work with only work with IE6. At home I prefer to use IE8 simply becuase I have no issues with, On the Mac I have tired using Safari and its not good enough, first there are some websites I work with which require security certificates (ssl) etc and Safari cannot load the website, also in simple websites like Ebay I cannot edit the text in my listing, also sometimes will not load pages becuase of some error which I tihnk after having it so many times must be common with Safari. What other browser can I use instead of Safari?

Other Software

I have a N64 Emulator called project 64, What emulators are there for the Mac?
I also use Power ISO/Dameon Tools/Alcohol 120 percent and Vasu. Again are there Mac versions of them?

I may have missed a few things I know like still not sure how to do screenshot and other little things I am used to on windows but hopefully will get round to them soon. When you list a software please write next to it if its free or commerical.

Thanks

 

For instant messaging, I am a huge fan of Adium. It is free, customizable, and can support a billion different IM services.

 

why did u get a mac m8 all programs u use run on windows LOL
i think u will need to install windows on the mac hehe
on a mac u listen to music and play videos (not all videos )
use adobe suit and audio editing software anything else u will use alot of time and money to find programs

 

is this a joke?

 

i am not joking man the mac leopard is so stable caz it don't have programs as much as windows have
so u lose ur favorite programs in exchange with stability

anyway u can get firefox for browsing i think there is a one for mac , not sure
and there is microsoft office for mac


i use my mac only for showing the glowing apple at the back
and using adobe suit and abelton live for editing audio

 

Well Im very tired of maintaining Windows with its securuty updates also its now unreliable becuase of Vista and windows crashes alot of time, windows explorer in not responding etc, you get loads of errors when using it, The Mac is faster on start up, I was amazed how fast it loaded up and then into safari in under 35 secs, compared to windows it takes around 1.30 to get to desktop then around 20/30 seconds to load into internet. Well Mac fans do say you can switch over to OSX without problems and will have access to Mac versions of those programs, and if not then a better program might be available. Im actually trying this theory out. I have decided to switch from windows to mac completely (well not really I will still keep windows laptop as back up)

 

no offense,but I feel sorry for you...you paid so much only to show off? there is Mac OS equivalent of 90% of Win programs,and some are better then their win brothers...

OP: check out this thread-

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=160062

 

i did get the MBP 1stly to show mac fan boys that its not the money that makes me don't use it, its the compatability
also caz i like to use the macbook in design programs cause it does not produce heat as the hp though they have the same GPU
3rdly i got the mac to use the abelton live 7 audio editing sotware more features


but when it comes to gaming i use pc
when i need any program that do bla bla bla i find it for the pc

 

I couldn't find only CAD programs for mac...and games OC

 

Word Processing/Spreadsheet etc

iWork 09 is great, and it's mainly all I use now. Microsoft Office for Mac is pretty good, and has good compatibility with PC's. I'm not saying iWork isn't compatible, but Office for Mac is good for students who turn in documents to teachers with PC's. (Both Commercial)

Video/Music Players etc

iTunes is great and fits my needs great, but you can also use VLC, which has many, and I mean MANY codecs for all different types of media files. Make sure you install Perian, Flip4Mac, and VLC, and you will have a winning combination there!

1. http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/perian.html (Perian) Free

2. http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/flip4macwindowsmediacomponentsforquicktime.html (Flip4Mac) Free

3. http://www.filehippo.com/download_vlc/ (VLC Media Player)
Free

Video/Music Converters and Editors

HandBrake is an awesome application that I use for ALL kinds of formats. It has many out of the ordinary formats, such as Xbox 360, PSP, PS3, Apple TV, iPod Touch, iPhone, QuickTime, and a whole lot of others! I'd highly recommend it!

1. http://handbrake.fr/ (Handbrake Video converter) Free

Rar/Zip

UnrarX is the perfect tool for all your .rar files. I use it all the time, and with no problems here.

1. http://www.unrarx.com/ (.rar extraction tool) Free

StuffitExpander is a built-in feature of OS X. It will handle your .zip files, with no need to download a 3rd party unzipper. No problems here with it! Be sure to keep it updated though, through the Software Update.

Instant Messaging

Adium is a good IM client, but has a few bugs. It's a great application, and it has support for thousands of IM sources such as AIM, MSN, etc. It's pretty cool. iChat is the built-in application that comes with iLife 09, and handles my IM needs quite well. It can support .mac, AIM, and a few others. I like it's interface, and it hasn't let me down yet. It's very nice, and I'd suggest to try them out personally, to get a feel for which one YOU like.

Bowsers

For browsers, I personally use FF, just because of the so many plug-in's that it has, and the interface. FF is based off a Mozilla platform, which is open source, and it is pretty secure. Safari 4 Beta has a wonderful new feature called Top Sites, which is a great addition to a simple but useful browser. Safari is secure, but be careful. FF takes up quite a lot of CPU usage, so this is just a warning. They are both great browsers, but they always have their moments. (Sometimes they can get sketchy, and slow down on you if you're not careful) Camino is going to be a great browser once 2.0 is released. Camino is a VERY light browser, and it is great for slower machines that don't have the power they have today. That doesn't mean it can't be a great browser though. Camino is based off the same Mozilla platform as FF, so it's just as secure. You might want to try these out too, just to get a feel for which one you really like.

1. http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ (Safari) Free

2. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html (FireFox) Free

3. http://caminobrowser.org/ (Camino) Free

Hope that helps!

 

Wow, There is a SH!T load of programs for OS X. You just don't know about them. Look around.

Currently I have over 150 programs and it grows daily. And it still does not crash!, try that with windows.

 

Also,Skype is great IM.

 

Wow, I can't believe I left that off my post!

 

Xirurg 1:0 Colton

 

Neo Office is a good, free alternative to Microsoft Office for Mac. The only problem is that sometimes the formatting changes somewhat if you work with both programs.

The best video player is VLC. It'll play anything.
I would also suggest getting Flip4Mac so that you can play all the wmv videos on web browsers and such.

UnrarX for .rar files
I think that .zip files are handled by OS X

For instant messaging I use iChat but I hear that Adium is good as well

I use Safari and Firefox for browsing

Other free programs that I would recommend:
Cyberduck for handling FTP
Google Notifier if you use Gmail
Skype
Transmission for torrents

 

Hello Colton that is great help, when the family move off the Mac Mini then I will install UnrarX and HandBrake, this software seems as you have wrote it that it converts alot of video formats. I need a program that can also extract audio from video and a software that can convert different formats of audio and I am going to download audacity for mac which I need. I am looking for a software where I can edit a video, so I can basically cut a video short, join etc adn then burn to DVD. Im not familar with the software that comes with the Mac, so hope fully I can be pointed in the right direction.

i normally use windows media player simply becuase of its simple Interface and ease of use and how easy its to add codecs, I do not like VLC, for some reason the video quality is always low using vlc, Im thinknig of Quicktime but I think I need to pay to buy a full license to use it like full screen.

Also I like to play my N64 games through an emulator called project 64, is there a mac version that I can use?

 

No problem iTzCaSPeR! iMovie will work great for editing a video. iDVD will also be perfect for making a DVD, and Disk Utility will be just fine for burning one. You could also use Plex, which is pretty good. It can play movies in HD, and will play a ton of files.

1. http://www.plexapp.com/ (Plex)

@Xirurg: I see how it is...

 

there are many emulators out there for tons of stuff, including Nintendo 64...

I never messed with N64, or emulators for it, but a quick google search turned up this URL there is probably more

http://www.sixtyforce.com/

 

MS Office 2008 for Mac is very nice actually, so is NeoOffice... OpenOffice makes a Mac version now, but I've had slow problems and lock ups and crashes with it way too often, I like NeoOffice better (its made off of a base of OpenOffice anyways)

Quicktime has limited functionality without a license for Quicktime Pro... but between Quicktime, Frontrow, iTunes, and VLC... I've never had an issue. VLC is a free download, the others come with OSX.

Well I have a copy of Roxio Toast that does some of this stuff, including interfacing with TiVo and things, but I don't really use it anymore... Handbrake is the best for free.... I've never had or attempted to convert wma files... so not sure what is best.
iMovie is great for editing videos... I'm really liking iMovie09... which should come on your new Mac, its part of iLife suite

UnrarX is all you need, standard zip stuff is built into the OS, you can open or make them without 3rd party software.... free download of StuffIT Expander will help with stuff like .sit files.

Adium is the best... only one I've used for years.

I've rarely had an issue with Safari, nothing as major as you seem to be having. I do run into a few websites that say they wont let me view them because i have to have IE, the ones I've run into work fine in Safari though when i use Developer mode and spoof it to report back that it is IE. Firefox is good too...
I also have a Bootcamp partition for booting directly into Vista in case i find a game I need to, I also use VMware Fusion to run that same Vista install as a virtual machine. With VMware in unity mode, it runs Windows windows on top of OSX hiding Windows, so I can actually open an IE7 or 8 Window up and use it if I need.
The Wine project works on it too... you can run IE6 on OSX with Wine (though it has some problems with plug ins.. its far from perfect, but it is old IE6). Codeweavers, who are the main contributors and make a pay-for app called Crossover claim to have IE7 working fine, for the next soon to be released version of Crossover.
The IE6 one is easy to do, Mike Kronenberg helps a lot on this front, for Darwine (Wine for OSX) and similar stuff.
http://www.kronenberg.org/ies4osx/ <- IE6 installer (requires Darwine installed)
http://www.kronenberg.org/darwine/ <- Darwine

N64 for Mac -> http://www.sixtyforce.com/
Macs (and Disk Utility that comes with OSX) have built in support for DMG as well as ISO files. If you double click a DMG or ISO you can mount it as a drive, no 3rd party software needed. If you use disk utility to make an Image, it only makes DMGs (and maybe .cdr which is basically the same thing). If you want them as ISOs you'll have to convert
them.. I wish Disk Utility would support making an ISO.
here is a good DMG converter
http://sunsky3s.s41.xrea.com/dmgconverter/index.html
I don't know what all Alcohol 120% does, but I've been able to do everything it seems to do with Disk Utility fine, no 3rd party software needed, but some people use Roxio Toast... i haven't had the need in the last few versions of OSX

You can set Screenshot keys in Keyboard preferences, or use the Grab.app that comes with OSX
by default the keys are...
Command+Shift+3 <- Capture entire screen and save
Command+Control+Shift+3 <- Capture entire screen and copy to the clipboard
Command+Shift+4 <- Select an area to capture and save
Command+Control+Shift+4 <- Select an area to capture and copy to the clipboard
Command+Shift+4 then Space bar <-Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and save as a file
Command+Control+Shift+4 then Space bar <- Capture a window, menu, desktop icon, or the menu bar and copy to the clipboard

I think in my whole post the only commercial apps I listed that do not come with OSX is MS Office 2008, Roxio Toast, Codeweaver's Crossover, and VMware Fusion.

 

Right first a big Thank You to everyone who replied. Now I have followed your suggestions and installed the recommended programs when i say i installed i actually mean download.

I have downloaded handbrake.dmg its there on the desktop, i right click and open with Diskimagemounter. Then i have handbrake under mac hd, I click open then it opens it and thats it there are 2 icons, one is called docs and one is icon for handbrake, when i click on the handbrake icon it does nothing, i cannot find the installed program anywhere

lets be honest, I have i used computers all my life and know how to install something but on the macs it simply is stupid. On the mac I cannot tell when a program has successfully installed or even where it is, i installed unrarx guess where the actual installed file was?

On my desktop, why is it that its not supposed to be under applications, same with bbc iplayer, it installed onto the actual desktop and not applications folder. Can someone guide me through installaton process and what i should expect to do or see. Im using Firefox.

 

no one said that it will be like windows.also,IMO,installing aps on mac os is awesome-you just drag the icon...

 

Yup, like you said, installing apps on OS X is very simple. All you do is click on the .dmg like casper did, and drag the HANDBRAKE icon where ever you want to keep it, wether it be your dock, applications folder, or Macintosh HDD. Drag and drop is all you need to do.

 

You downloaded compressed files to your desktop and double clicked them... all it did was pull out what was inside it and stick it in the current place, still on your desktop. I dunno how they made iPlayer but I'm sure its the same. On Unrarx, you download the .zip, you double click it and it just takes the .app file out of the .zip.. kinda like taking something out of a .zip in Windows. There was no installation process. When you have a new program, wether its a .zip, .rar. dmg, whatever.. once you have the .app file, you install it by dragging and dropping it in your Applications folder... thats it. If you download something with a .pkg or .mpkg file, its an installer program that leads you through an actual installation.

This isn't like Windows, you can drop the .app almost anywhere on your machine and still run it, no installation program to run or worry about... some programs are made better than others.... some programmers suck and don't know how to make a good Mac app, and make it like a Windows app with subfolders and files and junk all outside of the .app, when the whole program should be contained in the .app file.

 

Phew I managed to "Install" Something or more like just drag the apps anywhere and it worked.

I have used Macs before but only web browsing and wrod/excel stuff. I had no idea how easy it is to install applications on the mac. I simply downloaded a few apps then opened them and it simply unpackaged them and then all I had to do was drag the unpackaged file anywhere and thats its. The reason for my confusion was that I was expecting it to say something like congratulations or Finished install or sommat like that.

Also I managed to install n64 emulator and then installed xbox 360 controller drivers and now I playing on the mac with my xbox controller.

I have downloaded a program called CODEWEAVERS CROSSOVER FOR MACS has anyone used it?

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/

I think the advantage of this is that I dont need to install Vista or xp or even buy a new ms office etc i can simply use my windows program cd through this.

Ok there was one problem i encountered now this is resizing windows in vista i can resize the width and height but on the mac i can only resize from the right bottom corner which means that the window will be equal size on both sides, is there a way that i can resize the width only or the height only?

 

when it works its great... its based off Wine, i use the free open source version which is more technical to use... Cider the game porting engine they use to port some games to Macs also uses this same tech built into the app... when you can get it to work right, its great... but it doesn't work with everything, and some things it works with isn't always 100% working right.

thats a stupid Mac thing I've always hated. yes you can only drag and resize from that corner, but it doesn't work like Windows corner. You can drag that corner and only change up and down, or left and right, without changing both equally. If it forces changing the same on both, thats because its a limitation made in the application, not the OS.

 

I have downloaded Handbrake and tried to convert .flv files but it wont support that format.

 

I have a program on my MB that allows you to convert .flv files, but I'll get it when I get home.

 

Colton pretty much sums it up with an excellent post. There is nothing that windows does that Mac can't do apart from games. I've come across like 3-4 obscure pieces of windows only software which I have to run a virtual machine for but for the vast majority of apps (especially work apps) there is a mac version.

 

Why thank you sarahfox! Here it is: http://www.soft29.com/mac/video_converter_for_mac.html

It's worked great for me, and converts all of my .flv videos perfectly.

 

also,proper CAD soft is not available for mac os...yet!

 

Right i have listed the programs that i use on my Windows laptop/pc and wanted to switch to Mac becuase of the OS. Now i will list what i have found for the Mac and its usage for me.

Word Processing/Spreadsheet etc

Ok I have iWork and Neo Office both are great so i am covered for this.

Video/Music Players etc

I normally use Windows media player, its simple and easy to use and plus i downloaded a codec package which covers every codec i ever require. On the mac its not that simple, i have a folder with my music, i tried to highlight all tracks then play but could not do that with itunes it only play the first track. Even when i went to itunes i could not find my folder with all tracks, in fact it displayed them all over the computer locations and even then it did not find all the tracks. i have had to use vlc which does the job but is not user friendly as windows media player. my experience with the media players on the mac ave not been great but i am going to learn how to use them and maybe they would be better than windows media player in my opinion.

i have saved my music albums in documents then name in relevant folders. now i normally just right click on folder then click play on windows, on mac its not there, also when i do open the album folder then i cannot hightlight all tracks and drag them to the playlist.

Any tips or tricks for media players please also how to add media to players easy and simpler.

Rar/Zip

As i was informed that mac has a built in zipper. in my case it was complete useless because i sometimes download files in .7z format and i had to download e7 zip to unzip that format. i have also downloaded winrar and i believe i am covered for this topic

Instant Messaging

I have downloaded msn for mac and its good but not great. I don't think i would be looking for any other software.

Bowsers

I have downloaded firefox and it works on most websites but not all, same with safari. also i downloaded bbc iplayer through safari and it works but not firefox, i have tried fixing it but i think i need to uninstall bbc iplayer and then reinstall using firefox since i use it as my default browser. I dont think i would have major problems with the web so wont be looking for any other browser since firefox is my favorite.

If anyone has any great add on for firefox please list.

Video/Music Converters and Editors

Now this is what makes or breaks deal in my case, for some it is games but in my case its all about music/video editing. I have downloaded handbrake but it does not work for me. I normally burn dvds or convert them to psp/ipod. Also edit my own home videos. I also extract audio from videos and sometimes mix audio with video or basic audio mixing etc. i have not had any luck with this on the mac. im using Intel Tiger 10.4.11 and cannot find any suitable software for this. i normally use software which converts any format be it .flv .mp4 .avi to whatever i want. Also to back up dvds i use dvdfab which is great and for the mac i cannot find anything like that.

Can someone list a few free software that i can download or try again to download which is compatible with my intel tiger 10.4.11.

I will use the mac for a few weeks and see what software i have and what is missing, if in the end i believe that i can manage with the mac then i will purchase a new mac machine and if not then i will buy a windows and maybe install xp on mac mini.