Man what a great first impression

[Toasthead]

So i finally decided to take the leap into the world of Macs. I ordered a 2.0 early Jan 09 Mini from the refurn store which came today. I already bought a 500GB HDD and 4 GB of Ram to install as it came with 120GB GB HDD and 1 GB Ram. OR SO I THOUGHT! get it loaded up and am cloing the hard drive when i notice that the mini ALREADY HAS 4 GB of RAM!!!

Im soo freaking excited!!!

Anyway Im thinking about buying the macupdate bundle. Is it a good deal? I have NO software and dont really know whwere to start. I dont do much with my system and I currently have a dell xps 420 quad core, which is WAAAY overkill for me. I can tell already I am going to be very happy with Apple. Now to start researching laptops to add to the family!

 

[TheStu]

Well, it all depends on what you want to do with the system. I prefer Safari over firefox, but others disagree. Perian to add codecs to Quicktime, VLC for everything else.

 

[Avvocato Effetti]

Welcome!

After years of die-hard PC use, I recently switched to a MBP 15" 4GB 250 Gig Snow Leopard.

I was going to give myself 6 months to switch over. It only took me two weeks.

There is nothing on my old PC that can come close to the MAC.

 

[rdp6]

Click to flash
Handbrake + VLC
Transmission
Tuna Pitch

These are the apps I use the most which aren't included with OS X / iLife.

 

[dmw16]

Some good suggestions already. I also like MS Office for all my office-y needs. I know that it's Microsoft, but for me it's unavoidable.

Another good one is Transmission if you are into torrents.

 

[VinylxScratches]

NeoOffice for basic office application. I believe there is also Lotus Symphony. Seashore is a good simple photo editing app.

 

[Avvocato Effetti]

iWork, Apple's office suite, includes Pages (Word) Numbers (Excel) and Keynote (Power Point). These programs are user friendly and intuitive.

Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Elements.

The above programs work with the MAC in a natural harmony that a PC can't even touch.

 

[fatpat268]

I use Vmware Fusion 3 and have a pared down Windows Xp install (using nlite) that I use in unity mode. I use it for Microsoft Office (since I already own the windows version), small/old games, and anything random that I just might need windows for.

I have it running when ever my laptop is open, and it takes very little resources when idle. Definitely worth checking out if there might be a program that you absolutely need.

 

[mmntech]

You can also install Windows native on a Mac. I'm on my Mac working in Windows 7 right now in fact. Useful when you just can't find Mac alternatives. It also allows me to run XP as a VM.

 

[aphex]

This thread reminds me that I am WAY overdue in making that software thread (and my hackintosh Acer writeup). I need to get on those.

On a side note, welcome to the world of Mac's

 

[TheStu]

Aphex, I have actually been working on the app list write up in my spare time at work (read: most of my time at work is spare time). I will be putting up the list soon (I hope), but want to have a brief (a couple of sentences will work, something beyond 'really great X, I like it!' is best) description associated with each one as well as the link to the dev's website.

Let me work on it some more this week and I will send you what I have.

 

[aphex]

Aphex, I have actually been working on the app list write up in my spare time at work (read: most of my time at work is spare time). I will be putting up the list soon (I hope), but want to have a brief (a couple of sentences will work, something beyond 'really great X, I like it!' is best) description associated with each one as well as the link to the dev's website.

Let me work on it some more this week and I will send you what I have.

Excellent, thanks!