As some of you know from reading the Leopard thread, I recently made the "switch" to Apple.


So, what are some programs that you find to be useful and/or cool for OSX? I wanted to ask that question since I'm new to the Apple world and don't know of many, if any, programs that are available on OSX but not windows.


Side Question: One of the programs I'm looking into purchasing is Omnigraffle Pro. Have any of you used it? Impressions of it?

 

:crickets:

 

Wow.... What's with the 6 page history report just to ask what cool Mac programs are out there?


I want cliff notes next time..


Good idea... Bad execution..

 

Cliff Notes,

What are some cool programs for OSX and Jonesi is teh sux.

 

Probably right, but you are still teh sux

 

1) I like Toast (OSX) better than Nero (Win) for burning discs (DVDs or CDs). Toast doesn't give you as many options as Nero ... but does what I need it to do.

2) Adium -- best chat program for Mac that I've tried

3) If you use financial programs ... Quicken for PC >>>> Mac. That's the main reason why I would ever install XP on my Mac.

----

You gotta tell us what you're gonna use the computer for to give you suggestions on what Mac apps to recommend.

 

For me so far..

Web - Camino
IM - Adium
Songs - Acquisition
Albums - XTorrent
Media Player - VLC


All I know off the top of my head.. All were suggestions from the resident Mac experts..

 

KcnScrew/ Serial box for getting serials to programs
Remote Buddy 2 (especially for Iphone/touch owners) Great for people that present alot
Azureus/Transmission for torrents
Toast 8.0.1
Adium (IM)
Everyone says quicksilver but I still can't figure it out.
Stuffit 12 (archiving)
PS CS3
Colloquy (irc)
MS Office
AppDelete (removes preference files and such when deleting progs)
Divx Player
Vlc
Fugu for FTP
UnrarX
Monolingual (lets you remove language packs to free up HD space)
Coconut battery (shows health info for batt)
KisMac (wifi hacking)

 

I'm mostly going to use my computer for Web Development (Flowcharting, Graphic Design, Programming, Animation (Flash)), Personal Finance Management and surfing the net. Then of course there's the typical surfin' the net, burning a cd here and there, blogging, listenin' to tunes, etc.

I'll take any recommendation though, I'd like to improve my general knowledge about what applications are available for OSX and that are helpful to others.

 

Quicksilver.

 

Let's say your typing, and want to open a program. All you have to do is press command and spacebar, then let's say for itunes, just type "i" and itunes should pop up, then just press enter to open it. It makes opening programs so much easier. I haven't gone further than that, but it has triggers and plug-ins that I haven't messed with.

 

LittleSnitch

http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

Never use a Mac without it.

 

Isn't LittleSnitch OBE with Leopard's firewall which is supposed to do the same thing?

Anyway, my list of things I use a lot:
Quicksilver, Adium, Chicken of the VNC, iStumbler, Vienna (fast RSS reader), Tunnelblick (openvpn client), Flip4Mac (play windows media files)

Widgets:
Radar in Motion, iStat nano

 

NeoOffice is a decent Office replacement.

 

http://www.digg.com/apple/Top_100_Mac_Apps_2

 

i saw this other person's macbook the other day where he did something and the entire interface changed color layout. It went from the normal OSX look to a black and gray (x-ray) type look where the titlebars were gray and everything else was black (text was gray too).

Anyone know what program let's you skin your browsers gui?

 

Since you do dev work Sly you should really look into TextMate. It has some issues with Leopard but I honestly don't have the knowledge to tell if the problems are showstoppers or just "partial limitaions."

I'll also throw out a recommendation for Apple's own Keynote. If you do presentations on any regular basis, Keynote alone is worth the cost if iWork.

 

CORD-I use that to remote my Windows Machines

 

Windows Vista - Dual Boot it

Vista didnt work as well on my desktop but on my Macbook it is a freaking dream. There have been reviews that the Macbook is one of the best if not the best Vista machine. It comes in very very handy when I run across a program that only works on Windows. PLUS I dont care what anyone says, my old peripherals (scanners etc...) work right away on Vista. Mac side I have to search down drivers that tend to be old and outdated.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/irony/mac...ook-317060.php

 

 

YoupiOptimizer lets you get back about 1.5 gigs of HD space that is wasted on language packs you will never use.

 

Don't know what program let's you do that, but that reminded me of VirtueDesktops. It lets you switch between different desktops each with different programs running.

 

I did some searching earlier and found a program called ShapeShifter. Maybe it's that program.

http://unsanity.com/haxies/shapeshifter

Don't know of it's reliability or quality though.

 

While the stuff unsanity puts out is pretty cool, it's generally the apps that fuck up your system royally when Apple puts out an upgrade.

Case in point, APE was causing all sorts of issues with users who upgraded to Leopard.

For that, I'd stay away.