First time Macbook Pro owner

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Weenis

I said WEENIS, not...
Joined
Apr 10, 2006
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So I've been a long time PC guy.. But I wanted to venture into OSx to learn the Apple OS for a variety of reasons (I want to possible start developing ios apps). Use it for a solid on the go machine w/ good battery life and performance.

What I'm curious of are some must have apps.. Things that are not necessarily obvious that a power user would like to know.

Recommendations for accessories that are good to have/bags/case etc..

Anything I should know about OSx that isn't obvious that is hugely different from Ubuntu/Windows etc?
 
Weenis said:
So I've been a long time PC guy.. But I wanted to venture into OSx to learn the Apple OS for a variety of reasons (I want to possible start developing ios apps). Use it for a solid on the go machine w/ good battery life and performance.

What I'm curious of are some must have apps.. Things that are not necessarily obvious that a power user would like to know.

Recommendations for accessories that are good to have/bags/case etc..

Anything I should know about OSx that isn't obvious that is hugely different from Ubuntu/Windows etc?
Click to expand...

Must-haves? I use Adium for multi-network instant messaging, since it's exceptionally customizable and works with quite a few services. You'll also want to try a native Twitter app. Tweetbot for Mac is my pick, although it's $20; you'll want to look into the official app if you aren't a heavy user. Apple will let you download Keynote, Numbers and Pages for free from the Mac App Store, so I'd suggest you do that early on.

As for accessories: don't worry about a protective shell, but do get either a sleeve or a bag with a good laptop compartment. The Apple Store (both online and at retail) will have ones that are known to work well with MacBooks, and they may be slightly more stylish than what you'd find at Best Buy.

The big thing that throws off people coming from other operating systems? App installs. To start, OS X defaults to a trusted-sources-only setting; you have to go to the Security area in System Preferences to let it install apps from anywhere. Also, you may need to get used to how simple app installations are on the Mac. You just open the disk image (think of it like a ZIP file) and move the software to your Applications folder. And that's for apps you pull from the web -- if you grab them from the Mac App Store, they'll go there automatically.
 
Must haves?
I use:
Adium
NetNewsWire
Safari (I used to use Firefox for everything, but now that Safari has adblock plus/ghostery and decent tab management, Safari is generally faster).
Microsoft Office Suite
Adobe Software Suite
Quicksilver - My launcher replacement for Spotlight

After that everything else I use is based around the industry I am in... such as:
Capture One Pro
Photo Mechanic
Photomatix Pro
 
Mine will be based on coming from linux:

* Alfred for quick app launching, calculations, etc.. (similar to krunner in KDE)

* smcfancontrol to get your temps showing in the menu bar

* Hiss if you want program notifications to appear in Notification Center (that use growl). You can also pay for growl, which would be better.

* Soundflower if you want to use your audio output as input (Like playing music into a video chat). Similar to using pulseaudio in Linux to route streams.

* iterm2 to get a quick terminal pulldown from the top, similar to guake/yakuake

* mplayerx for videos (also VLC).

* Bettertouchtool to get easy window snapping/resizing similar to Linux/Windows

* Libreoffice, plus Apple's free iWork stuff like previously mentioned

* Keka for file extractions, similar to file-roller for gnome, etc..

And as previously mentioned, applications are self-contained with their own libraries and such (con being that programs are huge because each one keeps their own libraries, but pro is it is simple to install/move/delete)
 
- TextWrangler, or its big brother BBEdit if you need advanced text editing features and are willing to pay. TextMate is another popular option but development for it has stalled.

- iTerm2. The included Terminal app is adequate but iTerm2 has some useful features.

- VMware Fusion. Or VirtualBox if you want free but it's not nearly as good.

- Xcode. Needed for iOS development. Free from the Mac App Store.

- Sophos AntiVirus. Decent, unobtrusive, free.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
- Sophos AntiVirus. Decent, unobtrusive, free.
Click to expand...

I actually don't think he'll need it. Even now, when there's a handful of OS X malware, Mac AV software only really exists to prevent you from accidentally forwarding Windows viruses.
 
Aurelius said:
I actually don't think he'll need it. Even now, when there's a handful of OS X malware, Mac AV software only really exists to prevent you from accidentally forwarding Windows viruses.
Click to expand...

Whatever keeps that shit from spreading...
 
One thing I can advise, which I get asked every time someone buys a mac at my shop, "how do I uninstall this app I don't like?", and if you don't know that yet is that there is no control panel for uninstalling a software/app (has probably changed now since my test mac is 2 gens behind for osx, and my personal mac is still a PowerBook)
 
Little Snitch
Evernote
Fusion 4 or 6 for virtualization.


Oh and a little known secret to new users, if you can locate the demo's for ilife 09 and iwork 09, you can update them to full versions via the app store.

You get stuff like garageband, i photo, etc. for free.
 
Personally, I really appreciate the app Caffeine. I have it installed on all my Macs.
 
I really like Quicksilver and The Unarchiver. Parallels is also good, watch out for deals because I got it a few months ago for $21 - $20 MIR. Who knows they might do it again.

Enjoy your mac!!
 
f.lux
the unarchiver (free in the Mac App Store)
easyfind is free in the MAS
sitesucker is free in the MAS
if you want to replace terminal then I suggest looking at fishfish shell
tweetdeck is free in the MAS
IceFloor is a free and open source GUI for the (excellent & built-in) PF Firewall
PF firewall is BSD's stateful packet network firewall but it's configurable from the Terminal. the firewall in the OS is an application firewall.
AppCleaner is a great uninstaller
Carbon Copy Cloner is like CloneZilla but an app for OSX
I use Safari mainly but Chrome when someone requires Flash.
Or if I install flash I get the clicktoplugin extension for Safari.
gfxCardStatus if you end up getting a dedicated GPU.
Monolingual will delete unnecessary language and architecture files.
Handbrake will transcode.
Transmission will torrent.
Cord is like a VNC/MS Remote Desktop Client
Apple has its own VNC implementation for OS X called Remote Desktop
IceClean and Onyx are like CCleaner
Amarra is a Hi-Def plugin sound engine for iTunes
There are a number of network sniffing apps:
wireshark, wifi scanner, wifi explorer, istumbler, and kismac
I don't remember which of those were free except for wireshark and stumbler
textsoap isn't free but it scrubs text so you can fix formatting quickly
plisteditpro isn't free but it's an easy way to edit plists (files that hold information about an app)
screenflow is a screencasting app
viscosity is an openVPN client

I made some plists to mount the SSD with noatime and I mount my temp files in ram
 
First time I ever used Mac was less than a year ago and man I did not like it. Now sometimes when Im using my Windows I miss my Mac from work...lol. I like the Exploded view option.Much better for multitasking and switching between windows. I work with like 30+ transactions in SAP and thats whena Mac is handy.
 
I been carrying my 15" macbook pro i bought about two weeks ago in my northface recon. It fits well without anything as the backpack has a built in laptop sleeve with a foam roll at the bottom. It barely fits in the backpack sleeve with a case and I can make it fit with the case and sleeve. Case is from switcheasy and the sleeve is from rickshaw.

I can also manage to fit three thick textbooks along with notebooks and my audio technica headphones but it starts getting heavy, oh and a waterbottle, gotta have that.

The 15" macbook pro is definitely not as light as an ultrabook so I wouldn't recommend a messenger bag if you plan to carry anything else that adds weight, I tried it with my timbuk 2 laptop messenger and it was cramped and uncomfortable walking around the university all day. Not to mention the shoulderstrap crushed my pectoral muscles and smushed them together and it wasn't a good look for me........
 
If you're a programmer on the go - get Dash, which is offline docs for most languages. Super handy for coding on a plane.
 
It's amazing that everyone has discovered mostly all the same app gems!

In addition, I used to use BusyCal, Things and Curio.

For reference and digital asset management there was the super (but weird UI and super-expensive) DevonThink Pro Office.
 
I think the one I use the most is Alfred for super quick access to apps/web pages, and TotalFinder, which gives Finder Windows like tab control and folders on top.
 
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