Mac Apps you can't live without?

[narzy]

I'm getting my feet wet in Mac OS X, I've got iWork and love Pages. Keynote looks like it will be a lot of fun and numbers will probably make more sense to me than excel. I'm looking for other can't live without apps, I've got 1password, VMware Fusion and Mac Office 2008, are there any system maintenance programs I should have?

 

[Megatomic]

I've got NeoOffice, should I spend the $$ to get MS Office? I'm really used to Office 2003 btw...

 

[Parasitic]

XSlimmer

 

[narzy]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
I've got NeoOffice, should I spend the $$ to get MS Office? I'm really used to Office 2003 btw...

*shrugs* it's office, Mac Office 2008 is MUCH better than Office 2007 on Vista in my opinion. I find Pages to be easier and nicer to use for what I do. However there are a lot of features in Office that iWork just doesn't have. I've also found that when you export from iWork it does funky things to a word doc such as hidden characters and double spacing but over all they are generally cross compatible.

Is it worth the upgrade? I guess it depends on the cost. Personally the upgrade is nice enough to make it worth while and the cross compatibility with the PC is hard to beat, but I wouldn't have gotten it if I had to pay retail. (I got it at academic price.) MacMall has the standard version upgrade for $199.95, probably worth it.

 

[narzy]

Originally posted by: Parasitic
XSlimmer

bought that one, is AppZapper worth it?

 

[TheStu]

Perian
XSlimmer
VLC for some videos
iWork
iLife

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
I've got NeoOffice, should I spend the $$ to get MS Office? I'm really used to Office 2003 btw...

If you've got the money, I'd suggest going with MS Office. NeoOffice and OpenOffice have given me nothing but headaches. Maybe I'll give them another try in a few years.

 

[EGGO]

Quicksilver

 

[secretanchitman]

adium, perian, remote desktop connection, synergy...etc.

 

[randomlinh]

adium, perian, quicksilver, firefox, transmission.

I disagree that Office 2008 is better than 2007. I actually prefer the look and tabs from the Windows variant. The mac app just looks... like a windows app. Actually, a lot of these new design tweaks Apple has pushed for look more boring it seems. Anyway, the real point is Office 2008 feels far slower than 2004 even on my iMac.. which I found surprising. It definitely isn't any faster. Pages is the best, but if you need to work w/ office files a lot... VMWare+Office 2007/2003 is your best bet IMO. But I digress.

 

[GhettoFob]

Adium
Quicksilver
Cord
VMware Fusion

 

[umrigar]

Quicksilver
MainMenu
TinkerTool
Firefox
XLD
xACT
iTunes-LAME
MacPAR deLuxe
iStat Pro widget
Diskwarrior (worth the $$)

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: narzy

Originally posted by: Parasitic
XSlimmer

bought that one, is AppZapper worth it?

AppZapper can be replaced by other applications, like AppDelete and others, and therefore is never really necessary to pay for.

XSlimmer on the other hand, although there are other apps out there that say they do the same thing, is so well built and easy to use, so fast and efficient, and is so useful (especially on a laptop) that I happily paid the $11.95 for it, because at the time, the only other game in town was MonoLingual, and that just wasn't up to snuff.

As an amendment to my original post, if I were doing more web development/maintenance, I would definitely plunk down the $80 for the full version of Coda.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: narzy

Originally posted by: Parasitic
XSlimmer

bought that one, is AppZapper worth it?

AppZapper can be replaced by other applications, like AppDelete and others, and therefore is never really necessary to pay for.

XSlimmer on the other hand, although there are other apps out there that say they do the same thing, is so well built and easy to use, so fast and efficient, and is so useful (especially on a laptop) that I happily paid the $11.95 for it, because at the time, the only other game in town was MonoLingual, and that just wasn't up to snuff.

As an amendment to my original post, if I were doing more web development/maintenance, I would definitely plunk down the $80 for the full version of Coda.

I use both Monolingual and XSlimmer.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Parasitic

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: narzy

Originally posted by: Parasitic
XSlimmer

bought that one, is AppZapper worth it?

AppZapper can be replaced by other applications, like AppDelete and others, and therefore is never really necessary to pay for.

XSlimmer on the other hand, although there are other apps out there that say they do the same thing, is so well built and easy to use, so fast and efficient, and is so useful (especially on a laptop) that I happily paid the $11.95 for it, because at the time, the only other game in town was MonoLingual, and that just wasn't up to snuff.

As an amendment to my original post, if I were doing more web development/maintenance, I would definitely plunk down the $80 for the full version of Coda.

I use both Monolingual and XSlimmer.

Why both?

 

[Kmax82]

I'm still curious. I know it's only $12 for XSlimmer, but does it really make your apps faster to boot? I would love to know. I don't really need the space at the moment, but I would love to get a few secs faster loading times.

Oh and I'll add my picks:

1Password
Yojimbo
CSSEdit
Transmission

 

[mshan]

Will Perian allow me to playback content that usually requires Internet Explorer / Windows Media Player?

Or do I still need Flip4Mac or VMWare Fusion/XP?

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: mshan
Will Perian allow me to playback content that usually requires Internet Explorer / Windows Media Player?

Or do I still need Flip4Mac or VMWare Fusion/XP?

Looks like you still need Flip4Mac. So far I haven't run into any issues with that software. It works remarkably well IMO.

 

[The Green Bean]

adium, insomaniax, VLC, Azureus,

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
I'm still curious. I know it's only $12 for XSlimmer, but does it really make your apps faster to boot? I would love to know. I don't really need the space at the moment, but I would love to get a few secs faster loading times.

Oh and I'll add my picks:

1Password
Yojimbo
CSSEdit
Transmission

I have noticed some launch faster, usually Apple apps since those actually get slimmed down the most percentage wise. Safari for example went from 70MB to 6MB

 

[Kmax82]

Thanks, TheStu, I'll have to bite the bullet and grab the app. I've been meaning to since I found out about it in like June of last year.

 

[Tyranicus]

Adium
Firefox
VLC
Transmission
XSlimmer
Pages
iTunes
Toast
HandBrake
VisualHub
TVShows
Carbon Copy Cloner

 

[alfa147x]

Keynote, aperture, itunes, adium, and VLC

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Papers FOR THE WIN. Delicous library if I had the money. iChat. iGTD. (Dont get azerus get transmission). Cyberduck for FTP. Growl. Quicksilver. App Delete.

 

[Ultima200]

StarPlayr is my absolute favorite app as it is used for streaming Sirius over the internet. WIth this program there is no need to go to the sirius website, enter your account info and type in the security box. Just start the the program and you can listen instantly. Besides that, you can also pause and record. The only issue I find with the program is that the rackers are not always correct.