Lyoko Freak: 2005 - 2015. Return to the past now....

It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 8:44 am

Recommended Mac Programs

For discussion of computers and the Internet, as well as a place for you to post your websites to gain more traffic.

Moderators: The Administrators, Moderators


Recommended Mac Programs

Postby Colinahscopy » Fri May 28, 2010 3:39 pm

I recently got a MacBook as a gift. If you know of any programs that I should install on my computer, that would be great!
Colin K.
-------------------
Image
User avatar
Colinahscopy offline
Lyoko Team Member
Lyoko Team Member
 
Posts: 538
Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:45 am
Location: Saint Louis

Postby TheAppleFreak » Fri May 28, 2010 4:22 pm

Which type of programs are you planning on using?
For customization, I highly recommend CandyBar, an app that allows you to change any program or system icon, as well as the appearance of the Dock. In the same vein, I don't know whether it's SL compatible, but search for SuperDocker 3 (if you can't find it, PM me and I'll send it to you). SuperDocker also changes the appearance of the Dock, but it also tweaks some other system behaviors that are normally not accessible.

For word processing, Microsoft Office. It's the industry standard. If you don't have money in your budget, or you want to wait for Office 2010, a free alternative is OpenOffice.

For music/video, grab a copy of VLC and Perian. If you don't already use it, VLC is a very powerful video player, sometimes even a better alternative than QuickTime. If you want to continue using QuickTime, though, Perian is a free plugin that allows QuickTime to open just about every video and audio file known to man. I highly recommend it.

For gaming, Steam. Valve recently updated Steam to work on Macs, and although their selection is small atm, they're upgrading it.

For a modicum of Windows compatibility, WINE. WINE (which stands for WINE Is Not an Emulator) is ironically a Windows emulator for OS X, but instead of running a full copy of Windows in a virtual machine, per se, it only loads all of the files that some programs need to run. It's not perfect, and might require some virtualization software.

If you need virtualization software available, you have 3 choices: VirtualBox (from Sun Microsystems), VMWare Fusion 3 (from VMWare), and Parallels Desktop 5 (from Parallels). From experience, VMware is a really good program, though I've heard good things about Parallels as well. If you're cash strapped, VirtualBox is free, but requires a little bit of technical know-how to set up (and even then it's not perfect).

...Yeah, that's all I got atm.
I really gotta fix up this theme
User avatar
TheAppleFreak offline
Someone actually trusted me to run this site
Someone actually trusted me to run this site
 
Posts: 2969
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:39 pm
Location: /dev/null

Postby Jazzy Josh » Fri May 28, 2010 10:44 pm

Whenever they do the next round of it, I hear that the MacHeist bundle is generally good.
Image

@Jazzy Josh on Twitter.
User avatar
Jazzy Josh offline
Lyoko Team Member
Lyoko Team Member
 
Posts: 811
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2005 2:49 am
Location: Western Carolina University

Postby TheAppleFreak » Fri May 28, 2010 10:51 pm

Lyoko is Cool wrote:Whenever they do the next round of it, I hear that the MacHeist bundle is generally good.

YES. MacHeist is an excellent little bundle that sells little Mac gems for discounted prices (or in one instance completely free; that time I got over $130 in software for no money at all).
I really gotta fix up this theme
User avatar
TheAppleFreak offline
Someone actually trusted me to run this site
Someone actually trusted me to run this site
 
Posts: 2969
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:39 pm
Location: /dev/null

Postby Colinahscopy » Sun May 30, 2010 8:16 pm

do you know when the next macheist is?
Colin K.
-------------------
Image
User avatar
Colinahscopy offline
Lyoko Team Member
Lyoko Team Member
 
Posts: 538
Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:45 am
Location: Saint Louis

Postby TheAppleFreak » Sun May 30, 2010 11:14 pm

CJK wrote:do you know when the next macheist is?

No idea whatsoever. I'll reply in this forum when I get news about it in my Mac newsfeeds.
I really gotta fix up this theme
User avatar
TheAppleFreak offline
Someone actually trusted me to run this site
Someone actually trusted me to run this site
 
Posts: 2969
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:39 pm
Location: /dev/null


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests

cron