Apps for First Time Mac Users
I’ve had a large number of friends switch to mac recently, which is really great. They inevitably ask for advice with what (free) apps to use, so I thought I’d keep a running list here, both for them and for anyone else interested.
Quicksilver - App launcher and so much more. It’ll take you a day or so to learn, but the time it will save you later is well worth it.
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
Niceplayer - It’s like quicktime (everything that works in quicktime will work in niceplayer) but it lets you go full screen and lets you turn the volume up to 200% and stuff, it’s just nice.
http://niceplayer.sourceforge.net/
Perian - The only Quicktime plugin you will ever need. Does DivX, Xvid, blah blah blah.
http://perian.org/
WriteRoom - It’s a simple word processor but it goes completely full screen so it makes concentrating on writing Essays and stuff much easier. Version 2.0 and up costs money now, but if you scroll down to the bottom right, you can follow the link to Release Notes and scroll down and get version 1.0 for free.
http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/product/writeroom
Adium X - The instant messaging program I work on! It’s really really awesome, and there a ton of cool tricks you can do with it. It also beats the shit out of the crap ass MSN Messenger for mac.
http://adiumx.com/
Skype - It’s Skype. It’s awesome, and the Mac OS X version is really good.
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/
Firefox - Safari is pretty good, but I’d recommend downloading Firefox anyways, because if for some reason if a website doesn’t want to work in Safari, it will almost certainly work in Firefox.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Quinn - A really sweet Tetris game. You can play it over a network too. Highly fun.
http://simonhaertel.de/quinn
Handbrake - A really sweet, simple, DVD-ripper. Just put in the DVD, open up Handbrake, and click rip. It imports it straight into high quality MPEG-4.
http://handbrake.m0k.org/
Cooliris - Lets you look at Facebook and Flickr pictures at fullscreen, it’s very very cool, and works with both Firefox and Safari.
http://www.cooliris.com/Site/index.html
Transmission - The best bittorrent client for Mac.
http://transmission.m0k.org/
Inquisitor - Search auto-completion for safari. Really sweet.
http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari/
Google Notifier - If you don’t set up Mail to download your gmail for you, this is pretty useful.
http://toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/notifier_mac.html
Not free but worth buying:
Delicious Library - It manages all your material possessions. Really. And it’s AWESOME at it. You have to try it out.
http://delicious-monster.com/
iWork 2008 - Comes with Pages, an excellent (Word compatible) word processor, Numbers, an excellent (Excel compatible) spreadsheet app, and Keynote, the presentation software made famous by Steve Jobs
http://www.apple.com/iwork/
Nisus Writer - This is what I use to write papers and stuff. It comes in “Express” and “Pro” versions, which I’m not actually sure the difference of because Pro didn’t exist when I bought Express. It’s quite nice though.
http://www.nisus.com/
NeoOffice - Open Office with Mac OS X styling. It’s slow and ugly (IMHO) but is free.
http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php
If you have any recommendations, let me know.
A Word On Installing Apps
Most software is distributed in 1 of 3 ways:
1. A standard zip file. Doubleclick to unzip. Put the app in /Applications. Dispose of the .zip file.
2. A .dmg file. Short for Disk iMaGe, doubleclicking will mount the virtual disk. Open it up and it should contain the file you want, so put it in /Applications. Unmount the virtual disk and throw out the .dmg. (If you see an error when you try to empty the trash that says the file is in use, it’s likely because you haven’t unmounted it yet.
3. A .pkg installer. These take advantage of the Installer utility Mac OS X provides, and is usually only used when the software has to be installed in an unusual place, like a system library or something. You can (and should) click File -> “Show files to be installed…” (or something like that) to check out what it is going to install and where. You then click through the read me, license agreement, choose the disk to install it on, and install it. You can dispose of the .pkg after.
It’s also important to know that the Safari web browser will do some things, like unzip and trash original .zip files, for you. It also automatically mounts .dmg files. (This behavior can be turned off in the preferences, if you like).