Getting a Mac which programs to get
 

Anyone have any of these for Mac? Are they worth it? Alternatives?

Final Cut Pro 2
Adobe Creative Suite Premium
Aperture
Roxio Toast 9 Titainum
Microsoft Office

Yes I have all of those and they are great. But Final Cut Pro 6.

ahhh I guess 2 would be kinda old...lol

Whats Roxio all about and other than burning DVDs what are the benefits?

Coda for any sort of code/page editing - http://www.panic.com/coda/

Thanks so far any more advice

BootCamp and Windows :winkwink:

Lolooool.. i guess you dont like OSX much.. :1orglaugh

cyberduck for ftp. Its free

Quicksilver - launcher app
Microsoft Office 2008 - I'm sure you know what this is
Adium - Universal IM Client
iGTD - Get Things Done type app
Google Chrome - web browser
VMWare Fusion - for running Virtual Machines within OSX
Transmit - FTP
Coda - css/text/code editing

Aside from these and the Adobe suite, everything else I have on my Macs is Apple software.

I would say that the native dvd burner is just fine, although if you want to do 3rd party, roxio is the way to go.

Adium.....

Transmit as said for FTP. Why get MS office? Pages, Numbers, etc. from Mac work very well and have a 30 day free trial - http://www.apple.com/iwork/download-trial/

It depends on what you need, not what's available.
If you need video editing, then yes, Final Cut.
Adobe Suite is very expensive? Are you a designer? Do you need it?
Aperture is an ok image cataloging tool, but be aware that the databases will consume as much space as the actual photos, unless you specifically keep them external, then maybe only half, so again, do you need it? Can you get by with the Finder?
Toast is only useful to me for audio conversions from AIFF & FLAC to Apple Lossless. Not sure what anyone else uses it for.
MS Office is also expensive. I don't have it for two reasons: 1. I hate all things MS. 2. I have no use for anything in the office suite anyway.

I recommend:
Little Snitch for rock solid firewall security, both in & out
Transmit for FTP
Quickbooks for business accounting
Suitcase Fusion 2 for font management
GraphicConverter X for fast image browsing
A Better Finder Rename for batch file renaming
Carbon Copy Cloner for disk duplication
VueScan for scanning
WebSnapper (safari plugin) for screencaps
Glims (safari plugin) to make Safari less painful
and of course, the Adobe Suite CS4

everything else is pretty much built in, unless you have a specific need for something.

:2 cents:

1. Final Cut Studio 2 is a bundle. Final Cut Pro 6 is the standalone editor. So 6 is not necessarily better than 2 in this case.

2. Textmate is 1,000,000 better than Coda

3. Quicksilver is a MUST have

Boot camp sucks ass, dont use it. there are 3rd party programs that work better like parallels but even it sucks. Windows will slow your mac down and make it do some wierd shit, i know from first had experience.

Quicksilver - launcher applications
Microsoft Office 2008
Adium - ICQ/ AIM etc
Parallels - for running OSX & windows together
Transmit - FTP
Texmate - like notepad or textpad etc
HandBrake - make mp4 videos.
VLC - play any video file almost
ACDC Pro Beta - image management

I just can't wait to get my iMac....! Bookmarking this thread!

Yep, pretty much what everyone has already said and...
Paparazzi! - Webpage screen grabber (entire page)
Automator - Can create system actions
iViewMediaPro - Content viewing app (alternative to adobe bridge)
Flip4Mac - Of course!
And the list goes on...

Coda + Transmit

@quicksilver users, try launchbar instead.

pretty much everything above. just to add:

flip4mac
writeroom (if you like/need a distraction free writing environment)
handbrake lite for quick and dirty ripping of dvds
screenplay if you are writing episodes/screenplays/etc

Command + Shift + 4

That is true if you use Parallels. But loading Windows via Bootcamp on your Mac runs Windows in the exact same manner a Dell PC would. In some cases, they actually run Windows FASTER, not slower.

I bookmark this already. Keep it coming.

Just got it last night. This thing is very sweet. I think Im going to love it.

I made the switch about 18 months ago and it was awkward for a while.
My only issues left with the mac are :

1) They need to create a better keyboard. Yes there keyboard looks cool however I am used to the Microsoft Natural Ergo. Keyboard and find mac keyboard too small.

2) When I press "end" that means end of the line, NOT end of the entire document. Same with home. Still cannot get used to this.

Would never go back...

That's about it......

I used boot camp on both my Imac and Macbook Pro and all it did was slow the machines down, my laptop completely hated having windows, i had to have my whole operating system reinstalled due to using boot camp. I would not suggest ever putting windows on a Mac, its useless the OSX is just fine, does more then windows, and nearly every program out there is now mac useable.

All BootCamp is is primarily a partitioning tool, and then after you install Win, it has some drivers and whatnot to make Windows fully functional with the hardware. Nothing more.
There's no reason in the world why BootCamping a new partition and installing Windows should affect your Mac partition.
Windows may be slow... it may be just as plagued by Windows type things as any other computer, but it would not affect your Mac partition.

I have Win 7 bootcamped on an iMac here for testing, and nothing else, and it runs perfectly fine, as does the Mac partition. But on my primary Mac, I won't let Windows anywhere near it.

:2 cents::thumbsup

This is a great thread..


some other cool minor things..

Cool Extras.. ( don't think they are listed above)
7zx - 7zip
Boxee - cool for watching tv.
Flickr uploader - if you use flickr
Google Notifier - ( not as cool as gtalk on pc.. but better than nothing)
Slush - Video thumbs and more

Must haves ( not listed above)

SQLite Database Brower.. - nice and easy was to brower mysql data
Css Edit - GREAT CSS EDITTOR
MagicMouse Pref - only if you have a magic Mouse
NTFS for Mac / Mac Fuse

( Programs I uses all the time - listed above)

Little Snitch
TextMate
DreamWeaver / Photoshop
Itunes
Tranmission ( ftp program)
Chrome / Firefox - with a ton of greasemonkey add-on
VLC Media Player
Pages
Growl

What version of Little Snitch did you get?

Little Snitch has version 2.2 out for Snow Leopard. The previous versions (for Leopard) won't work with SL. (at least they wouldn't here on three different Macs)

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

:2 cents:

The best place I know of to look for apps you may want (need), complete with tons of reviews and updates all the time: http://macupdate.com

It's the electronic bible for Mac users. :2 cents:

Amp, just curious if you don't mind....is Toast the best program for Mac to use when converting FLAC files over to ALAC? I have tons of FLAC files to port over to ALAC or mp3 or whatnot. Also, is ALAC playable outside of ipods, or is that apple specific? And last, should there be another format i convert to other then ALAC if i want the best losses sound, and playable across all players? I obviously need to do tons more research before posting these questions, but figured i'd give it a shot none the less.

Well, there are a couple different schools of thought on this subject.
A lot of guys will tell you point blank that FLAC is the best, because of what it is: FREE LOSSLESS AUDIO CODEC.... however, in my experience, Flac is difficult on a practical level because you need weird software to use it. I just want high end audio I can play in iTunes and iPods, etc... so I use Toast to convert to Alac. Whether it's playable outside of iPods, I couldn't really say, because I've never tried.
But, of course ALAC can always be converted to something else as well, because ALAC is also lossless, so your hi-grade audio will still always be good as long as you keep the lossless copies. And you can burn Alac to CDs if you want, right in iTunes.

My guess would be that ALAC may cause problems for you if you're looking for use outside of an iPod or iTunes and you'd probably have to convert again to something else. When I run into that situation, I convert them to MP3 for temporary use. My sticking point is, I prefer the ultra high quality of lossless audio, so I stay away from MP3s like the plague. But that's a personal preference.

Toast will convert FLAC to ALAC super quick. The trouble is, it doesn't maintain any internal tags, so after conversion, you drag them into iTunes and have to go in and re-enter the info back into the tags. It's a pain, but to me is worth the extra work because my audio collection is a thing of fucking beauty right now. It's flawless.

When I rip from a new CD, I just pull the raw AIFF files off it now. Not really even "ripping" as we know it, just a copy & paste. Full uncompressed, lossless audio.

:2 cents:

Wow, that's some great information and exactly what i was looking for.

Agreed. On my windows desktop and laptop i'm running VLC to listen to my FLAC files. But FLAC still doesn't help me on the ipod, etc. Been waiting to pick up my mac, so just trying to get a handle on what the choices are for mac.

Honestly, i'll probably never run the files outside of ipods, but you never know..was just curious on those limitations.

Didn't know you can burn Alac to cd's in itunes...good to know!


Exactly what you said...same deal over here. I love my FLAC files cause the sound is just awesome. I wanted to keep lossless audio at all costs on my ipod...just didn't know how to get FLAC over to the ipod. Sounds like Alac is my solution. And i'm with you 100% on mp3's...i avoid those as much as possible.


See, i would have pulled my hair out for a week trying to figure out where all my tags went! Just that sentence alone probably saved me huge hours trying to figure out the problems with the tags. Much appreciated. And like you, i don't mind the extra work at all with the tags, nor if the situation arises when i need to convert for another player...the quality makes it worth it for sure.

Quick question...I assume when converting from Flac to Alac, the Alac files end up being roughly the same size as the original Flac files? Or does Alac compress more (or even less)? These Flacs are hefty...lol


Toast allows you to do that with the AIFF files? Or are you taking the AIFF files through another program, then importing them into Toast?

I appreciate the post Amp...awesome information man. Sounds like Toast is your top pick. Can't wait to get started and have lossless on my ipod. :)

I find the Alac files are a little bit smaller than Flac. But not like MP3s would be. We're still talking about lossless audio after all. :winkwink:

On Macs, you can just copy & paste the raw AIFF files right from the CD. You'll probably want to run those through Toast too, just to keep everything nice & tidy and in Alac format though. But AIFF will play just fine in iTunes and everything just the way they are.

Long as you don't mind entering in your tags by hand, it's the best way I know to rid yourself of the Flac format and still keep lossless high grade audio.

I use Amazon to get the track listing order, or the actual CD of course. And being a designer, I went one step further and made high grade album art for all my stuff, all with consistent 500x500 dimensions. (Also did this for the 1000+ movies I have). But of course, with the proper titles & artist tags, you should be able to pull default art from iTunes. I'm just anal about it. :)

Wow, didn't know you can do that. My final mac newb question. If AIFF files play fine in itunes, then i assume the reason you convert AIFF to Alac is for a more compact lossless compression? I'm assuming raw lossless AIFF files taken from a CD are massive....thus the need for the extra compression via Alac for ipods, etc? Again, appreciate the posts Amp...learned a lot! :)

Yeah, AIFFs are mucho grande bro. Better to convert to Alac.

Don't mind the extra steps at all...i'm anal when it comes to my personal media. And speaking of which, might sound a little lame, but you could probably turn your album art/tagging database into a business somehow. Some might think it's lame but guys like me that are real anal about their personal media organization would gladly pay for something like that. :2 cents:

Yep, figured as much but wasn't sure. Thanks :)