Friday, January 21, 2011

What Programs to Install on Your Mac--Updated when possible

You have a new Mac. What programs should you choose to load and what order should you load them?

-CleanApp-
This App is designed to run in the background in order to properly and completely uninstall any programs you'll install. Haven't used it yet, but it makes sense.
http://www.syniumsoftware.com/cleanapp/

Other Operating Systems

-Boot Camp Partition-
Boot Camp Assistant can only partition the NTFS partition on the primary hard drive if there are no other partitions on your hard drive. So run Boot Camp Assistant before you make any other partitions.

-VMWare Fusion or Parallels or Virtual Box-
-To run Windows or Linux while Mac OSX is running

-NTFS for Mac OSX-
If you need it, it may let you read AND write to NTFS windows drives. http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26288/ntfs-for-mac-os-x

Office
Pick one.

-Office 2011 for Mac-
You'll use it. Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.

-NeoOffice-
Similar to Microsoft Office but free. You'll want to change the default saving format to be compatible with Microsoft Office.

-iWork-
Apple's version of Office. It's not bad, it's just different. Again remember to change the default saving format to be compatible with Microsoft Office.

-Openoffice.org-
The original free Office software that NeoOffice was based off of.

Increased User Friendliness

-PTH Pasteboard-
-Cinch-
-Audio Hijack Pro-
(paid) but a little more user friendly than Shift It
-Shift It-
-Fluid Web Browser-
http://fluidapp.com/
-TextExpander-
-TextWrangler-maybe

Optional Office Programs
-Adobe Acrobat Pro-
-Cyberduck-


Media
As needed.

-iLife 11-
It's the newest version. '09 was fine.

-Audacity-
A simple audio recording software. Also edits music. More simple than GarageBand (in iLife '11).

If needed
-Adobe Creative Suite-
-Gimp-
-GimmeSomeTune-
-Flip4Mac-
-VLC Player-
-DivX-
-MPEG Streamclip-

Web Browsers
Safari is a pretty stable browser and decent with the delicious bookmark shortcuts. Theoretically, it would make sense to have a browser based on Safari (Stainless), Firefox (old Flock, Camino), and Chrome (new Flock)

-The old Flock based on Firefox 2.5.-
-Firefox-
-Chrome-
It still isn't completely compatible with all websites.
-Opera-
Different, but decent


Other

-SuperDuper-
backup

-Alarm Clock-
Useful free alarm clock.
http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/index.html

-FanControl-

-Scanning software and printer drivers if necessary-
http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/index.html

-PDANet-

-Skype-

-Omni Disk Sweeper-
-Onyx-
-UnRarX-
-Transmission-
-TeamViewer-

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