I'm no authority, but here is what I use.
Why buy one app when you can buy a package deal that works together (maybe)? If I could, I'd still be using WordPerfect 8 for long documents and HTML, but those days are past.
iLife 09 -- iPhoto doesn't handle editing the way I like, nor do I like it for photo management, but iPhoto is great for making slideshows quickly. I also use it on the road for reviewing pictures. However for easy access to photos in other Apple apps you really need to use either iPhoto or Aperture for photo management. So far I've avoided handing everything over to iPhoto, but maybe now is the time. I don't do videos, but iMovie certainly makes it tempting. I do use it for editing software demonstrations (screen captures). Until DVDs go away, one really needs a DVD creator and iDVD will suffice. I don't use iWeb, but I did try it out and an older version was used to create this.I use GarageBand for sound track editing. I'd love to create music but I just don't have time to pick up on that hobby again. I'll mention iTunes here. I'm very happy with it and don't miss what I used on my PCs (MusicMatch Jukebox). No longer part of iLife, but it used to be even though it was always freely downloadable from the Apple site.
iWork 09 -- Keynote is a great replacement for Powerpoint, Pages is a good word processor and adequate page composition tool for my needs. Numbers has finally moved to acceptable. All three of these create documents that look much more polished than I can make them with Microsoft Office. This is now my primary office suite.
Office 2008 for Mac -- Needed for that imaginary full compatibility with Windows. Otherwise avoid the Microsoft suite! If you need macros, try to find Office 2004 (I've got a copy of that as well) since 2008 doesn't support them. And I found out that Office 2007 for Windows has a new equation editor, and it isn't supported by 2008 either. But it is a must have. Comes with the fonts my students have been using but otherwise don't appear on Macs.
OpenOffice.org 3.0 -- A full suite but seems sluggish and has no templates, so forget its PowerPoint clone. Only use its Word clone for it's ability to import some word files better than Word as well as, thankfully, WordPerfect files. It's free, so no reason not to have it except for the disk space.
Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium -- I previously bought CS3 just for Photoshop, but with the academic pricing I can get, went for the whole suite. Just upgraded to version 5 Premium, which has Dreamweaver that I want and some Flash apps I'll probably never use. You can't beat the power of the Adobe apps, but none of them are easy to use. Photoshop is basically a must have for photography, and Dreamweaver is a perfect replacement for an old IBM product I used to use for HTML. Illustrator is overkill for my vector graphics needs, but I've got it if I need it. I want to learn InDesign.
EazyDraw -- All I really want is MacDraw. I ended up with EazyDraw. It does what I want but for my needs does too much which makes it too complicated. Still much better than Adobe Illustrator. OpenOffice has a drawing program that is dreadful, and as far as I'm concerned the drawing capabilities of iWork or Office 2004 in their presentation packages just doesn't hack it.
OmniGraffle -- As EazyDraw is to MacDraw, OmniGraffle is to Visio. By far the easiest way do draw charts (flow charts and state diagrams in my case), but EazyDraw has better drawing tools.
Mathtype -- generates equations that look nice. While a commercial product, it can be used indefinately for free if you are satisfied with a limited mode that matches the functionality of the OEM versions formerly shipped with Microsoft Office and AppleWorks (but not iWork, for some reason).
I don't use bit-mapped graphic drawings, but if I did my copy of Photoshop would do.
I use Photoshop CS5, Bridge CS5, and iPhoto as mentioned above. Also:
Aperture 2.1 -- I bought this because I had been using 1.5 to access my photos (which are "reference copies" so I can access the same photos with iPhoto or Finder). 1.5 doesn't run under Snow Leopard. 2.1 was supposed to be faster, but I didn't notice any difference. I might try using it again, but I've been happy with Adobe Bridge.
Calico -- Fast and easy panorama stitcher. Only occasionally fails, and then I use Photoshop. Inexpensive.
Photomatix Pro -- For HDR photography. Hard to beat.
Huey Pro -- display calibration hardware and software.
I'm planning on buying PhotoAcute Studio for focus stacking and other image enhancing features. So far I've resisted noise reduction software.Besides iPhoto (for slide shows), Keynote (for title slides), iMovie and iDVD, I do use a few other programs. But I don't consider myself a big video user.
iSHowU HD -- video screen capture. I use this all the time. Will capture Parallels Windows screens. Fast operation. Flexible. Low cost. The older, non-HD version is fine and does HD, but they had a special to upgrade to iShowU HD plus Stomp for less than the cost of Stomp alone.
Stomp -- format conversion (transcoding). I used to use VisualHub, which was great but discontinued.
Perian -- plug in for Quicktime. Handles all common formats not done by Quicktime alone. Free.
Handbrake -- format conversion from DVDs for viewing on PCs (without DVD drives) or iPods. I also use it for FLV conversion which doesn't work anymore in VisualHub (outdated codecs?). 64-bt version is very fast.
QuickTime 7 Pro -- upgrade from Apple adds editing and other useful features. Inexpensive. The new QuickTime X is missing most of the QuickTime Pro features, so isn't a substitute.
XTools -- must have on OS X. Free from Apple. I've never written a Cocoa or Carbon application, but I've used the gcc compiler for command line apps. Yes, there is a command line!
Netbeans -- I'm a big fan of Java, and this gives me a good crossplatform development tool. Free. I preferred the old Borland JBuilder, but dropped it after they went to Eclipse. They have also dropped Mac OS X support.
Epsilon -- programmer's editor. Comes with Mac (using X windows), Linux, and Windows versions. Earlier versions existed for DOS and OS/2. It's been around for many years and I've used it for at least 20. Not cheap, but I couldn't live without it and use it on all the platforms. EMACS without warts. I'm using it to edit this html now.
Intuit is promising a good new Quicken release, but until then we are running Microsoft Money on our home server system. However it looks like the new Quicken program will be so anemic as to be useless. So it probably will be back to Quicken for Windows. Sorry Apple, you just don't rate well for this. I've looked at several of the available programs and don't like any of them.
H&R Block TaxCut -- I used it on my PC and now they have a Mac version, so tax time is a bit less taxing.
Mail, Address Book, Calendar -- Does what I want and elegantly. I hate Outlook at work. Now that I use an iPod Touch as my PIM, it syncs the addresses, notes, and calendar with ease. I used to use a Palm, but syncing was erratic with a Mac and Palm is basically fading away. I used to use Thunderbird for mail, but OS X Mail is much nicer. Part of OS X.
Spotlight -- searches and finds everything. Also provides a quick dictionary and calculator. The feature I miss most when I'm on the windows machine at work. Part of OS
Chronosync -- I use this utility to synchronize data files between my MacBook and my iMac. It has been working flawlessly. Cost feels a little high, but worth it to me.
TimeMachine -- Not so much of a backup tool as it is a version management system. Go back in time to recover an earlier version of a document or some files that you thought you wouldn't need. Not a replacement for true backups.
SuperDuper! -- Stupid name for a robust backup (to external drive) program. I keep backups "off site". I've paid for this to get the fast, synchronizing backup mode.
Safari -- Has become my primary browser because of speed and ease of use. Part of OS X.
Firefox 3.6 -- alternate browser. I use the Adblock Plus, NoScript, and CustomizeGoogle extensions.
Cyberduck -- FTP/SCP client. Free.
iChat -- video chat and remote desktop access. I use this to help my father on his iMac. Part of OS X.
ChickenOfTheVNC -- VNC client program when I can't use the built-in client in the Finder, Microsoft Remote Desktop or iChat. Free.
Bonjour for Windows -- allows my Windows systems and virtual machines to print to my Mac-connected printers.
Daily Comics -- widget for Dashboard.
Parallels 5.0 -- I've tried VMWare Fusion but Parallels seems to be better integrated into OS X. Early versions of Parallels were flakey, support has been lackluster, and each interrim upgrade a hazzard, but they finally have their act together with a smooth running product.
Onyx -- a good way to do system cleanups and set hidden options.
Disk Inventory X -- graphically view disk utilization.
iStat -- widget for DashBoard that shows system status. I use the Nano version on the MacBook and the Pro version on the iMac.
Renamer4Mac -- was free, now $29. Works so nicely I'd pay the price if I had to.
DockStar -- shows count of unread messages in different categories on the dock. This should have been built-in the Mail program.
Stuffit Expander -- for those increasingly rare Stuffit format archives.
BetterTouchTool -- provides the capability to program additional multi-touch gestures and modify existing gestures in the MacBook touch pad and the new Magic Mouse. Particularly dramatic for Magic Mouse users since that mouse has less built-in features than the previous Mighty Mouse.
SecondBar -- Adds a menu bar at the top of additional monitors. This solves one of my old complaints about the Mac OS X in that with large multiple screens it can be a long way to the menu! An additional feature adds right-click functionality to the colored window buttons that maximizes windows to half screens or alternate screens. Fantastic on the 27" iMac to get side by side apps. Note -- I've temporarily removed this because of bugs. Hopefully the developer will get back to working on this program again (he is the author of BetterTouchTool for which is is frantically updating).
QUICKSILVER -- I don't use this anymore, instead relying on SpotLight as my program launcher. I never got into the advanced features of this program.
Encyclopedia Britanica -- Wikipedia is free and suprisingly faster to use. Of course Wikipedia isn't authoratitive and I haven't removed the Encyclopedia, but I don't use it any more.
Coconut Battery -- A free utility to display everything you want to know about your battery. But I've discovered all that information is available anyway.
Microsoft Remote Desktop -- remote desktop client for operating headless Windows XP Pro systems which I no longer have.
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Tom Almy webmaster8@almy.us |
Last Modified May 2010 | |
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