Just got a MBP 2.4ghz & and have some Mac questions...

J

JediK

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
467
Hey everyone, just got the older MBP 2.4ghz for $1,599 at Best Buy last night, I was going to look at the new ones however the price drop and matte screen was a no choice for me! I'm going to order 4gb of Crucial today and probably an external WD 2.5" hdd.

What software do I need? I've been a Windows guy for the most part.

Downloaded and installed:

Audim
iStat Menus
FireFox 3
Transmission
Virtual Box (plan on playing with Windows & Ubuntu / Linux with it, I'm not sure if VMFusion is worth the price)
FileZilla


Downloaded:
Gimp 2.6
KompoZer

What am I missing?

I installed DivX thinking it would add the codec to QuickTime. Is there a way to play DivX in QuickTime and not the DivX Player?

I love it so far!!! :D:D:D
 
you are missing quicksilver (link)

I used Transmission for bit torrent, but I also liked azureus (Transmission link)
 
Perian is the tool you want for the video stuff. It'll allow QuickTime's player to play most anything. Also, there is a WMV for QuickTime tool from Microsoft itself which will let you play WMV and WMA (video and audio) files inside QuickTime.

Your best bet is using VLC as it can do a lot more than just QuickTime alone, especially without all the bloat (QuickTime is fairly large when running, and using iTunes just to play an mp3 file sucks down a lot of RAM, kinda silly). There are other small very nice tools to play audio files as well.

Seriously, if you want a great start, get a book, no kidding. The one I usually recommend to new OSX users is this one:

The Rough Guide to Macs and OSX 2

They recently came out with the 2nd edition (linked above) and it's fantastic, full of page after page of incredibly useful tips and information that'll get you up to speed fast. Cheap, and worth every single cent in the long run. Highly recommended.

There's a lot of goodies out there, a lot of it completely free, but there is a lot of fantastic commercial software as well.
 
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Ok, I don't like VirtualBox (so I uninstalled unzing AppZapp and deleted my VirtualBox folder under my account, I hope I got everything uninstalled, I'm going to have to get used to this) as well as VMFusion (I installed it on our only Mac at work and it runs smoother to me). I also downloaded HandBrake. I'm sure I'm still missing a ton of awesome apps.

Thanks Joe for the heads up, I'll check the guide out.

SonDogg - azureus was good 3 - 4 years ago, I think they sold out a long time ago and their interface is useless now. IMHO
 
"I'm going to have to get used to this..." is spot on. :)

No worries, I prefer VirtualBox myself. It's lighter, meaner, runs faster (in my own testing, that is). Handbrake is great for crunching movies for portable devices, but if you're into DVD copying/ripping MacTheRipper is still the best for OSX machines. I use MTR to rip and then DVD2OneX to crunch the content down to fit onto a single layer DVD, much like I do with DVDDecrypter (to rip) and DVDShrink (to crunch) under Windows. Results are basically the same on either OS platform as far as I can tell.

And I'm running all this on a Hackintosh I just finished on Friday... with a Celeron 430 1.8 GHz CPU powering it all. :D
 
Oh and for watching videos movies etc. download VLC Media Player. Plays **everything** under the sun. WMV's as well.
 
If you use the machine to store important data I'd get SuperDuper and do a nightly backup.
I like CoverSutra as an itunes controler, but Quicksilver can do that for free. Growl is the most widespread "program notifier". Really useful. I use 1password for my software licenses and for inputting data registrations in Safari. Perian and Flip4mac add much support to QuickTime. Transmission for torrents. Netnewswire for RSS feeds. Handbrake and Mactheripper if you like to rip your own DVDs. Caffeine is very useful when you don't want your screen to fall asleep. Nocturne for computer use during the night.

Something like that.
 
Timing is everything... but good lord, what kinda crap-shoot-shit forum or board software is ShackNews using, that's pretty horrid stuff right up there with the crap-shoot-shit stuff Slashdot can't seem to escape from. UGH. :)

Adding...

And I agree with the recommendation for a few of the things on that comments thread, most especially JustLooking as a replacement for Preview specifically for images. Preview really should have been updated long ago with more functionality for images, guess it just wasn't a priority. JustLooking ROCKS, BIG TIME... highly recommended. A true diamond in the rough in OSX software, and free to boot...
 
Joe Average said:
Timing is everything... but good lord, what kinda crap-shoot-shit forum or board software is ShackNews using, that's pretty horrid stuff right up there with the crap-shoot-shit stuff Slashdot can't seem to escape from. UGH. :)
Click to expand...

I had to LOL at this. Takes a little getting used to but the threaded commenting system on Shacknews is IMHO the best out there.
 
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