I just got a new MacBook Pro about a month ago. I love it. It's a 15" running OSX 10.5.8 with a 2.8GHz Intel Core Duo with 4GB RAM. It also has the dedicated NVIDIA graphics card with 512MB. It has also been several years since I've owned a Mac and I've never really been familiar with OSX, so I'm still working out a kink or two as I get used to it. So far, I have: -Transmission for torrents. Pretty cool. -FireFox for teh interwebz. No explanation needed. -iWork productivity suite. Pretty cool and less bloated than I've found Office to be. -VLC for AVIs and WMVs. Questions: -I downloaded OpenOffice.org today because all the PowerPoints and Word docs didn't translate as well as I'd like them to into the iWork package and I don't want to pay for Office without seeing what alternatives are out there. So far OpenOffice is pretty cool and seems to run without a hitch. Anyone have any opinions of OpenOffice one way or the other? What's your experience? Does it behave like Office? Do I have to save it in a particular format when sending .doc files? -There is apparently a Quicktime plug-in/codec to play AVIs, but I'll be damned if I could get it to work. Anyone know how to figure this one out? -Under OS9 I could click "About this Mac" under the Apple menu and see how much RAM was being used by which applications I had open at the time. Doesn't seem to work quite the same way in OSX. How do I do this? -Are there any "must-have" apps any of you would recommend? Any "must-have" websites? Thanks in advance....
i have all the stuff you have... only other think i can recommend it onyx which is a freeware program that does weekly maintenance.
"Caffeine". It keeps your display turned on if your too lazy to go into display settings. "Super Duper" for backing up your HD. "Handbrake" for burning DVD's "Boxee" to turn your mac into a media center. all free by the way.
Adium - IM (far more account types supported than iChat). iStumbler - souped-up wifi finder. Picasa - photo manager (I prefer it over iPhoto) iStat menus - keep track of real time CPU/RAM usage Flip4Mac - play WMV's Butler - add fully customizable Start menu like Windows
You mentioned Firefox, but it is the slowest piece of **** on my Macbook... Prefer Safari. other than that... InsomniaX - prevents laptop from falling asleep VLC player mojo - share and download music in your network
I like Safari all right but I really missed AdBlock and hated how Safari opened in a smaller window. I like my browsing to take up all the screen. My old Macs acted the same way, so maybe there's a way around that that I just ignored? What do y'all use in lieu of Office? I like iWork well enough but every time I send out something to my classmates like a study guide, I had to save it from Pages into Word format and wind up with two copies. It was a hassle. I haven't really played around with OpenOffice enough to make much of a determination about it. Reeko - how does Handbrake compare to iDVD? I've yet to use either. Thanks for the suggestions. Keep them coming.... I'm in the ER all day tomorrow for clinicals so I'll check back when I can.
Nice buy, first things first you should go pick up a copy of Snow Leopard OS X (10.6). Since you just purchased your Mac, you'll get a discounted price of $10. Here's the link: http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/ I second the suggestions of Adium for chat and iStat (Dashboard widget for all system stats at-a-glance, like CPU, RAM, temps, fan speed, etc). If you're into Twitter, I'd recommend getting Tweetie as a desktop client. To get the ram info (among other things), hit command + space bar to bring up Spotlight in the top right and type in "Activity Monitor" and press enter. This is similar to Task Manager in Windows.
Handbrake will allow you to rip a DVD to various formats Sites like macupdate.com and maczot.com tend to have a "deal of the day" on software. Also, check out www.macheist.com. Near the end of every year, they start offering a lot of free and deeply discounted software culminating in a very cheaply priced software bundle that has contained programs like Pixelmator, Parallels, Wiretap, Espresso, 1password, etc. for a fraction of the cost.
OpenOffice is alright for pretty basic things for me, but I'm still debating buying Office. I might just be a little OCD, but whenever I open something in Office that was started/edited on OpenOffice, the formatting is always a little different between the two (mainly the margins). It just kind of bugs me having to do additional editing when I go back and forth between the two programs (I have Office 2007 at Work and OpenOffice at home). But if you're strictly working in OpenOffice it should be fine. Formatting is no problem as long as you keep the .doc format when you save it. Also recommend "Quicksilver" ... lets you easily open apps without having to go into the finder.
let me correct myself. handbrake can "Rip" your DVD's. backup your movies "just in case your DVD brakes".
