Buying a MacBook tonight. What are some must have applications?

shipwreck

shipwreck

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I'm going to head out tonight to buy a new MacBook and was just wondering if there were any recommendations on some applications I should look into once I bring it home and start it up.

I'm mainly looking for the best free open-source stuff available for my new machine.
 
Good move shipwreck. I got a mac in december and probably will never go back. There was a thread a while back about programs, so you might want to search for it. here it is.

If you're looking for open source stuff, you probably want to check out open office. It's a great program, i've heard, for word processing and stuff. I've heard that it's kind of bloated, though.

What are you looking to do with it? Video-editing, picture editing? Post some more details and maybe I can help.


Also, There's a deal going on now if you're a student, or know one :), you can get a free ipod nano. That's worth checking out.
 
[quote name='munch']


Also, There's a deal going on now if you're a student, or know one :), you can get a free ipod nano. That's worth checking out.[/quote]

Not trying to steal shipwrecks thread here...but about that free ipod nano deal. I just graduated back in May. What kind of proof do you need to show for enrollment to qualify?
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']Not trying to steal shipwrecks thread here...but about that free ipod nano deal. I just graduated back in May. What kind of proof do you need to show for enrollment to qualify?[/QUOTE]

Well, i've heard stories about them trying to verify you being a student, but I'm not to sure about that. If you go to the apple page, click on education, then go to shop online or something like that. Then select your university and go from there. The nano is a MIR, but you will definitely get the cash.

There was a cut off date for grads, I got the e-mail, but I forgot what it was. Check it out at apple.com


I also found this. Man, that's a damn good deal.
 
From my experience, if you buy online you can just say your a student and you get the discount regardless. My parents got my brothers Ibook this way, we placed the order just going through the student pages. There was never anything to verify it. When I bought mine instore, they just asked for my student ID and it was pretty simple.
 
Even if you buy in the store, you just need to present your student ID and you're good to go. They didnt ask me for any other extra proof during the purchase. The Macbook is a good purchase, especially w/ the free AR 2GB iPod nano and the free AR $100 printer. After upgrading to 2GB DDR2 and 100GB HD I just installed OSX then bootcamp w/ XP and never used the OSX again.... heh. The bundled OSX comes w/ iLife, which you can read about it here. I haven't used OSX enough to recommend anything, but I did start a thread at apple.com (follow this link) just to see what apple users will respond.
 
As far as free applications go, I use Quicksilver, Adium, Firefox, VLC, NetNewsWire Lite, TextWrangler, Transmission. I'll try to think of more later.

The weblog TUAW.com is great for Mac news, and macupdate.com has a searchable database of programs if you need something in particular.
 
Ive had my black Macbook for a couple of weeks now and really like it. It does take time to get used to after using a PC for my entire life. I stumbled across this list of Mac Apps from http://www.tuaw.com that I think are really good, although I dont think they are all free, if any. One that really stands out that I started using last night is Delicious Library. It is a very beautiful program that organizes your game/cd/DVD library. It lets you use your Macbook camera to scan barcodes and inputs all the information. http://www.delicious-monster.com/

The rest of the list is on this site:

http://www.phillryu.com/2006/07/03/the-top-ten-most-beautiful-os-x-apps/
 
I got a MacBook Pro in May and LOVE IT!

I'm a developer and just getting into the Objective-C/Cocoa Xcode stuff. Probably not as intuitive and easy to developer with as Visual Studio (at least at first), but not to shabby for FREE!!!

Must have apps? Hmm, let give the list of my current apps I use every day:

1. Terminal (it's Unix!)
2. TextMate (BEST. TEXT. EDITOR. EVER! Better then my Vi!)
3. Locomotive (Ruby Development)
4. Xcode (Objective-C/Cocoa Development)
5. Safari (Browser)
6. CyberDuck (FTP)
7. Adium (Best free instant messenger I have ever used that includes Linux and Windows)
8. VLC (Wonderful free video player)
9. Chicken of the VNC (Best VNC client)
10. iTunes (I hate iTunes for Winders, but in Mac OS X, it rocks!)

Those are the ones currently on my Dock. All of these apps are free or open source except TextMate (well worth every penny).

I don't know what Open Office the post above is using, but it blows ass!!! It's big, it's bloated, it's Java.

I don't know about you, but I don't need crap like a spreadsheet or database. The simple stuff like Calendar, address book, text, and presentation are all I need. So I use the free ones that come with the MacBook Pro and I got iWork for the word processor and presentations. Worth every cent, I only paid $50 as a student for those. Not sure of the non-student price. For spreadsheet, I have no flippin clue. If you need a database for desktop, again no clue, but as a developer I would look into something that uses sqlite. Surely something out there does.
 
[quote name='b3b0p']I got a MacBook Pro in May and LOVE IT!

I'm a developer and just getting into the Objective-C/Cocoa Xcode stuff. Probably not as intuitive and easy to developer with as Visual Studio (at least at first), but not to shabby for FREE!!!


3. Locomotive (Ruby Development)

[/quote]

Well, I'm sold. I'm a Web 2.0 developer myself (Ruby, AJAX, J2EE).
 
First post on my new Macbook!!

Yeah, mrs. shipwreck is still in school, so I used that student deal to get it tonight. Need to start looking at some of these applications that have been recommended. I'm really just looking to do a little bit of everything and learn some new areas (especially with web applications and audio/video stuff) and the macbook seemed perfect for that. I've used both Macs and PCs for years so this is perfect for me. I actually do quite a bit with spreadsheets and databases so I'm still determining how I want to attack those. I'll use Excel for the spreadsheet stuff as I already have Office for OS X, but there's no Access for Macs so I'm going to have to learn something new.
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']Not trying to steal shipwrecks thread here...but about that free ipod nano deal. I just graduated back in May. What kind of proof do you need to show for enrollment to qualify?[/quote]

Anyone can use the education discount HOWEVER Apple will randomly audit orders and if yours happens to be one where you are not a student at said institution they will make you pay the difference of retail.
 
As far as free web browsers go... people have mentioned Safari and Firefox, but I by far prefer [highlight]Camino[/highlight]. It is made by the guys at Mozilla and takes a lot from Firefox but looks much nicer.

Why Use Camino?

The Camino Project has worked to create a browser that is as functional and elegant as the computers it runs on. The Camino web browser is powerful, secure, and ready to meet the needs of all users while remaining simple and elegant in its design.

Camino combines the awesome visual and behavioral experience that has been central to the Macintosh philosophy with the powerful web-browsing capabilities of the Gecko rendering engine. Built and tested by thousands of volunteers, Mozilla’s Gecko brings cutting-edge innovations and capabilities to users in a standards-friendly and socially responsible form.

Sure, you can use a typical web browser, with typical features. Or you can use a browser that “also” supports the Mac. Or you can use a browser you have to pay for. What if there was one that offered everything, for free?

That browser is Camino. Camino makes your web experience more productive, more efficient, more secure, and more fun. It looks and feels like a Mac OS X application should, because it was designed exclusively for Mac OS X and the high standards set by Mac users. You’ll see the entire internet the way it was intended. Camino is the browser that gets out of your way, and that means Camino users need not worry about things they shouldn’t have to.
Click to expand...

You can get it here.

I'll also back up b3bop with regards to [highlight]VLC[/highlight]. It is a great media player that plays practically all formats.

On a final note, learn how [highlight]Mail[/highlight] and [highlight]iChat[/highlight] work with the [highlight]Address Book[/highlight] to make managing your contacts easier than ever before.

Macs are fucking great machines, enjoy yours!
 
I've been stuck using a powerbook for the last week and a half. I don't know how I would have made it without Toast 7 Titanium. It lets you virtually mount all kinds of pc image files that I'm pretty sure you can't even open with Disk Utility. Really fantastic burning program, a lot like Alcohol 120.
 
[quote name='Swift900']As far as free web browsers go... people have mentioned Safari and Firefox, but I by far prefer [highlight]Camino[/highlight]. It is made by the guys at Mozilla and takes a lot from Firefox but looks much nicer.



You can get it here.

I'll also back up b3bop with regards to [highlight]VLC[/highlight]. It is a great media player that plays practically all formats.

On a final note, learn how [highlight]Mail[/highlight] and [highlight]iChat[/highlight] work with the [highlight]Address Book[/highlight] to make managing your contacts easier than ever before.

Macs are fucking great machines, enjoy yours![/QUOTE]

Hmm... I'll have to try out Camino tonight. I've just stuck with Safari so far, but I'm missing the tab browsing so I was planning on installing FireFox very soon. Maybe I'll try Camino first.

As far as the Address Book/Mail/iChat stuff goes, I'm already using iChat and I haven't decided if I want to set up Mail and Address Book. I'm attempting to just use my Gmail accounts on the web rather than having a dedicated application directly on my computer, and that's working pretty well for me except I've found that printing isn't as intuitive directly from Gmail so for PriceGrabber rebates I got some pretty weird page layouts. I'm experimenting with a couple Gmail widgets that show the last few emails received and I think I prefer that route for my main email experience. I certainly know that I don't want to use Entourage as it just seems to bog down macs I have used in the past.

I'll probably use Address Book to store some contact information, but I'll have to look at the options on Mail to set it up so that it doesn't download the emails off the gmail server so that I can just use it for the emails I want to print.

Edit: Holy crap, that Delicious Library thing is awesome. Definitely something that is right up my alley.
 
[quote name='shipwreck']Hmm... I'll have to try out Camino tonight. I've just stuck with Safari so far, but I'm missing the tab browsing so I was planning on installing FireFox very soon. Maybe I'll try Camino first.

Edit: Holy crap, that Delicious Library thing is awesome. Definitely something that is right up my alley.[/QUOTE]Maybe I misunderstood what you were saying, but Safari does have tabbed browsing as well. You just have to go into the preferences and enable it.

Also, if you're interested in Delicious Library, they're having a sale right now where the price drops $5 / week until they sell a set number of copies. I think it's down to $30 at the moment. I'm not affiliated with them, but am a satisfied customer after registering my copy last week.
 
Safari does have tabs. When you have Safari open, press command + comma (,), (I LOVE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS), then set the tabs up. The one thing that sucks is that for some reason my Safari opens most external links in new windows. I have it set up for tabs all the time, but I don't know what's up.

As for addreess book and mail, it's the shit. It may not be the have the most functions, but it's simple and gets the job done. My favorite part of the iLife is that it's all integrated. For instance, I have an entry for my brother in address book that has his picture in it. Whenever he e-mails me and I open it in Mail it shows that pic from the address book. That's cool as shit I think.

Also, is delicious library free now? I thought it used to cost money (we're talking about the dvd thing, right?).
 
Oh, and if we're opening the door to non-free apps, you might check out OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle. In fact, they might have come pre-installed on your computer. (They did on my old Powerbook, and OmniOutliner came on my new iMac.)
 
Thanks for the tip on Safari tabbed browsing guys. I don't think I even looked in the preferences on that one as I figured it would be a default setting.
 
[quote name='zacbrain']i dont like macs....
but hmmm i can find free apps. pm me about it.[/QUOTE]

No thanks, I'm not really interested in pirating software. The only reason I was asking about the free stuff was that in general, I've found that most good freeware/shareware outperforms most retail software.
 
The ones I use on my iBook the most are

- Adium...really good message program
- Connect 360....stream content from your mac to your 360!
- GIMP...a free alternative to photoshop
- Aquisition...am I allowed to say I use that? ;)
 
[quote name='seanr1221']The ones I use on my iBook the most are

- Adium...really good message program
- Connect 360....stream content from your mac to your 360!
- GIMP...a free alternative to photoshop
- Aquisition...am I allowed to say I use that? ;)[/QUOTE]


I've seen Adium mentioned several times. What exactly are the advantages of using that over iChat?

GIMP will be something I install when I eventually need to do something with a photo.

I don't think I'd use Connect 360 as I already have my 360 so that it streams from my desktop PC and I've really just be plugging my iPod directly into my 360 lately.

Yes, it's fine to say you use Aquisition as there are many legitimate downloads that can only be had by using a bittorrent client. I was thinking about trying Transmission just because it looked lighter, but are there specific things in Aquisition that make it better?
 
[quote name='shipwreck']I've seen Adium mentioned several times. What exactly are the advantages of using that over iChat?

GIMP will be something I install when I eventually need to do something with a photo.

I don't think I'd use Connect 360 as I already have my 360 so that it streams from my desktop PC and I've really just be plugging my iPod directly into my 360 lately.

Yes, it's fine to say you use Aquisition as there are many legitimate downloads that can only be had by using a bittorrent client. I was thinking about trying Transmission just because it looked lighter, but are there specific things in Aquisition that make it better?[/QUOTE]

I like the changes you can make in Adium. If you check out their webpage they have all different types of downloads to make your program look and sound how ever you'd like.

I use Acquisition mostly because it was suggested by my brother, and he's a computer engineer so I trust his judgement with those kind of things ;)
 
Feel free to name any widgets you guys use as well.

Currently, I'm using Xbox Live Friends and CD Boxart Image (don't remember which one) the most.
 
[quote name='sying']Make sure you get ilife, its supposed to be free with the Macbook[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that all came pre-installed.
 
Adium
VirtueDesktops
Smultron (Best free text editor I can find)
TextMate (I love this so much when my trial ends, I'm buying it)
Xcode
VLC
Chicken of the VNC
HandBrake Instant Handbrake and PSP = Bliss!

Also, I stay away from Apple devoted sites. However, I do read Ars a few times a week and can recommend that to you for worth while news and more prominent Apple information (not the rumors). They have a much more intelligent discussion forum with less focus on rumors and hardware releases (thank goodness!). The Infinite Loop Journal is more geared towards Apple related items.

I hate FireFox greatly compared to Camino and Safari. I only use Safari now. If a website sucks in Safari I just don't visit that site or live with the defects. It feels so much faster and stable compared to FireFox. There is also Opera for Mac OS X, which I would choose over FireFox and Camino also.

Also, when downloading apps, look for x86 or Universal Binary.
 
shipwreck, here are the widgets I'm using right now. I've highlighted the ones I use most often.

Calendar
Capture (0.7.5)
[highlight]coconutBattery[/highlight]
einstein
Guitar Chords
Marquee
miniBattery
miniCpuHeat
miniUptime
Stickies
[highlight]Stickies Spawn[/highlight]
Symphonic
[highlight]To Do Tracker[/highlight]
 
[quote name='b3b0p']Adium
VirtueDesktops
Smultron (Best free text editor I can find)
TextMate (I love this so much when my trial ends, I'm buying it)
Xcode
VLC
Chicken of the VNC
HandBrake Instant Handbrake and PSP = Bliss!

Also, I stay away from Apple devoted sites. However, I do read Ars a few times a week and can recommend that to you for worth while news and more prominent Apple information (not the rumors). They have a much more intelligent discussion forum with less focus on rumors and hardware releases (thank goodness!). The Infinite Loop Journal is more geared towards Apple related items.

I hate FireFox greatly compared to Camino and Safari. I only use Safari now. If a website sucks in Safari I just don't visit that site or live with the defects. It feels so much faster and stable compared to FireFox. There is also Opera for Mac OS X, which I would choose over FireFox and Camino also.

Also, when downloading apps, look for x86 or Universal Binary.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the Handbrake tip. I was going to have to search for a DVD to PSP/iPod converter and this looks to be quick and easy. I swear, after not really messing with a Mac for 2 years, all of these application names are completely foreign to me and most just seem to be randomly named.
 
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