signmeuptoo
Folding and Crunching Not just Breakfast
Premium
join:2001-11-22
LOSTinSpace
clubs:  | What is your list of must have apps? If I ask you guys for a list of the 5 to 10 most must have applications for the mac what would they be? I am assuming that photoshop would be one? Office another? But what else? | |
|
 |
|
|
Happy_Frappy
join:2003-02-14
Chowdahville
1 edit | AppleWorks will be the best bargain 'works' application since it includes OS9/OSX versions on the disc and templates are fairly useful for most users. Requirements won't bog down a Beige G3 with 256mb or less and a small disk space footprint. For most people AppleWorks is powerful enough for most tasks and the drawing/paint features are really useful. Basic wordprocessor documents translate without problems to MS Word format, complext documents from either side will have problems after conversion. Edu pricing is $40 USD
Office 2004: Personally I'd avoid it on older systems or bare minimal memory req, the performance was horrible on my 12" PowerBook's base config of 256mb of ram. For usability you'll need 512mb so OS X+Office apps have enough headroom. You may want to consider hunting down a copy of Office for OS X, requirements aren't as heavy and you'll avoid having to spend so much on memory upgrades.
BB Edit: while its a great product, use google to find the 'Lite" version for OS 9... or if your going OSX there was a 1.0 version for X but AFAIK they took it offline, I think I have a copy on a MacAddict CD.
PixelNhance: A great freeware program for tweaking colour, contrast, etc of photos/graphics.(OS X)
Art Directors Toolkit: A great program which is useful in measurements/conversions, scaling estimates, column estimates, preview colour swatches(easier to view with this vs the floating window(s) of Photoshop.(OS X)
VirtualPC: Useful for running certain PC-Only freeware or shareware... or in my case some specialized Windows applications for uni(OS 9/OS X) | |
|
mayhemstudio
The Pump Is Like Cumming
join:2001-03-19
Los Angeles, CA | There is a list of stuff in the FAQ section. | |
|
atoms
join:2000-12-16
Chicago, IL
| The users of these forums tend to be geekier than normal people. Our lists of must-have apps will include all kinds of stuff that norrmal would have no use for such as terminal emulators, network tools, code editors.
It might help us answer your question more effectively if you told us what kinds of things your wife and son will be using the computer _for_. | |
|
|
linicx
Caveat Emptor
Premium
join:2002-12-03
United State
 ·CenturyLink
| I'm not geeky and neither is my spouse. We have a G4 MDD.
I can do most anything I need to do textually in Apple Works which is the Mac response to MS Office. Currently I am editing a book using AW. What I like best about AW is that it doesn't crash, lock up or lose unsaved work. It is about $400 cheaper than MS Office for Mac. If you are doing really complicated conversions between Mac and PC the result won't be pretty. It is the same result between any two word processors that are not made by the same manufacturer. Text to Text seems to work best when moving AW docs between a PC and Mac.
.Mac .. there isn't anything else like it. $99.
Toast CD software because its the best. $50
Graphic Converter does the basics photo manipulation with ease.
JAlbum is a free tool that makes publishing photo albums to the web easy.
Mike's Cards at www.mikesedore.com/ has several very nice Mac games for OS 9 and OS X. Free
Internet Connection
Stuffit Deluxe is probably a waste of money if you use Panther, but necessary if you use OS 9 $80
I think VPC was is a waste of money for the price. $179 You need a lot of power and a lot of memory to emulate Windows. You can buy a Lindows box from Outpost.com for $179 and convert it to a Windows box for one-third the cost of a cheap e-machine.
Just my two cents. .
| |
|
Brendan
Warr Guitar is here
join:2000-07-14
Littleton, CO
| 1) AppleWorks - yeah, I still use it
2) iApps - all of the iApps except iMovie and iDVD
3) ircle - not the best IRC client, but I still use it because I paid for it
4) MS RDC - use this to earn my MCSE & MCDBA on a Mac
5) Mail
6) Fetch - best FTP program, IMHO
7) Terminal
8) EV Nova - best 2D game for the Mac. ever.
9) Quake II - catch me as "Grenade Man" on KansasNet
--
Libertarian Party: The Party of Principle | |
|
steven s
Premium
join:2002-09-14
Dearborn, MI | OpenOffice, Firefox, EasyWMA (for when downloading a wma on p2p, you can convert it to mp3 to burn or put it on your ipod). I just got into macs, so not much yet, Xfactor is a good p2p program. | |
|
|
|
|
·
