Unofficial Newbie Guide To OS X

[Dazzla Veteran]

Here ya go, this thread will be a sticky, it'll contain what I and others think are essential apps for OS X.

This will be handy for both the newb and myself, I hate it after a reinstall when I've forgot something and can't find a link.

Anyway, I'll start it off with the shareware/freeware apps I install after a format:

Camino:

In my opinion it's the best web browser on OS X, tabbed browser, very fast, high quality rendering the lot. Still young as well.

Omniweb:

Alternative browser, looks very pretty and some people will swear by it. It's more feature complete then Camino but it's a dog on Neowin.

MSN:

You're gonna need a chat client, this is the official one from MS. It's not bad, but there are better, such as...

Proteus:

This is akin to Trillian, multi client and a very very nice app. It contains all convo's in one drawer so your desktop doesn't get cluttered up with windows.

Transparent Dock:

This does exactly what is says on the tin (to quote an ad). Simply give different levels of transparency and option of custom PDF's. It doesn't work in jag atm, but this thread will be continuously updated.

ShapeShifter:

Theme changer, this is the one I use and I've had no problems with it so far. This leads me onto...

Themes:

These can be obtained in a few places, Xthemination, Interface Studio and if you're real cutting edge, Izawa themes. The themes provided by Izawa on his site need a little altering to work on non-Japanese OS X, any problems, just ask me ;)

I'll finish now, give others a chance, there's plenty of apps to go yet...

[Wickedkitten Veteran]

Watson - If you've ever seen Sherlock 3 in action this is the app that got it started. I mainly use it for the version-tracker tab to see what new software has been released from day to day and the recipe tab.

Acquisition - with the demise of audiogalaxy (RIP) this is the best app to use for the search of mp3's

Audion 3 - Personally I think Audion ****s all over iTunes in the fact its got about 3x the features plus it supports ogg vorbis and mp3pro.

Halime - The best newsreader for OS X period. I like this loads better than Thoth

Mp3Voodoo - mp3 collections are created from folders of mp3

files including cover and back images for every album.

Many different display modes make it easy to find

desired titles even in large collections. Not essential yet cool

Snax

feature stuffed finder replacement that I find damned cool

MacVcd, 3ivx Codec, Divx Doctor 2

Everything you need for divx and vcd's on the mac.

Thats some of mine, I would include the Adobe and Macromedia products that I use but most of those are common place.

[Chad]

Well I can throw some out there..

Neo

Its Kazaa for the Mac. Small cpu/ram footprint

WeatherPop

Weather program for the menu bar. Shows current temp. Under the menu, you can see the forcaste, humidity, wind speed, etc

Fire

Aka Trillian for Mac. Similar to Proteus...chat with MSN, AIM, ICQ, etc. I tend to use this more than Proteus

TinkerTool

Change some extra settings not available in the System Settings.

MaxMenus

Quick menus that are very customizable. Sets hotpoints in the corners of your screen to activate the different menus. VERY handy.

LiteSwitchX

Alt-tab through open apps aka windows. OSX has a default command-tab, but I've found it very lacking

Adium

An AIM client. Easily the best AIM-only on the Mac. Possibly the best chat client on the Mac period.

All of these can be found at Versiontracker.com

[Gator]

Man, I think you guys pretty much hit all the essentials.

Carracho :

I've tried Hotline and Limewire but I have found Carracho to be the most reliable and have the most features. It's kinda like eDonkey and DirectConnect for Windows.

SnapperHead :

This is a fun one. It lets others view a live shot of your desktop in a web browser.

[212RikanMofo]

hey dazzla, for the transparent dock thing, uhm wut does custom pdf's for? im not sure wut feature that is?

[Dazzla Veteran]

Originally posted by 212RikanMofo

hey dazzla, for the transparent dock thing, uhm wut does custom pdf's for? im not sure wut feature that is?

So you can change the background. You can have it like a rainbow, clear, pink etc. The docks in my screenshots are using plain black pdf's with transparency.

[Zerosignull]

Fire About Fire

Fire is an Multiplatform Instant Messenger client based off of freely available libraries for each ?service?. Currently Fire handles ICQ communication, and Yahoo! Pager communciation. All ?services? are built off of gpl?d libraries, including firetalk, icqlib, and gtkyahoo (linux libraries).

Fire looks somewhat like AIM but is much much more. It can handle similtaneous connections to AIM, ICQ, Yahoo , IRC, MSN and Jabber IM.

[EmuBite]

Okay, I'll jump into the mix. The most indespensible program that I've found for my iBook is LaunchBar. It has all but replaced the dock (it is much faster accessing programs using keyboard shortcuts) and acts as an excellent task switcher.

Check it out. It's one of the only programs that I have registered after only using it for 30 minutes. Well worth the $20.

Cheers,

RW

[Steve]

Take a Trip here, for a Load of Random FAQ's http://www.macosx.com/forums/forumdisplay....p?s=&forumid=58

The Site has Many Forum Sections like Neowin! :D

NeYo

[Gator]

Toolbar Icon Changer (TIC):

This is a great app made buy a guy over at Macfora. TIC lets you easily change the Finder toolbar icons by doing all the terminal work fo you. I don't know if this works with Jaguar but it works great with 10.1.5 .

[Dazzla Veteran]

Originally posted by GatorZx2

Toolbar Icon Changer (TIC):

This is a great app made buy a guy over at Macfora. TIC lets you easily change the Finder toolbar icons by doing all the terminal work fo you. I don't know if this works with Jaguar but it works great with 10.1.5 .

This is what happens when I try and do anything with that:

Edit: Well, you need Applescript 1.8.3, grab it from here: http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcg...id=15315&db=mac

Works perfectly now, good find.

[Gator]

CandyBar has been updated with even more great features, including easy change of the Finder Icon.

What's New In Version 1.0.1

-Qualified for use with Mac OS X 10.2.1

-Supports all new icons for Jaguar:

? Finder (yay!)

? Private Folder

? Drop Box

? Mounted Server

-Smoothicons starter set updated & expanded

-Displays progress bar on first launch when -Backing up icons

-Many little fixes and improvements

CandyBar 1.0.1

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

now for some shortcut keys:

wanna see what your mac is doing during boot under OSX?

Hold Command-V for verbose mode

screw something up badly and need a command basic prompt to repair?

Hold Command-S for single-user mode

Command-S will probably save your life at least once if you're into heavy system mods and overclockinh utils :)

[Silvorgold]

Originally posted by timdorr

now for some shortcut keys:

wanna see what your mac is doing during boot under OSX?

Hold Command-V for verbose mode

screw something up badly and need a command basic prompt to repair?

Hold Command-S for single-user mode

Command-S will probably save your life at least once if you're into heavy system mods and overclockinh utils :)

lol sometime in the next month i'll have to write a huge ms word doc as a "just in case" thing lol...

Microsoft Mactopia Downloads

thats only if you MISS microsoft (or u want msn mess)...or u own a keyboard/mouse made by microsoft thats osx compatible...

Apple Downloads Page

This page is pretty up to date for programs that are freeware/shareware/demo available for mac osx, and includes most of apple's own software (including ical and itunes)

"so your thinking that your getting a mac, and your hoping if some of your hardware (ie hard drive/cd burner) will work with the new macintosh?" check out http://www.xlr8yourmac.com they're an excellent site about hardware reviews and "how to's" to get a certain hardware product to get working with a mac...i looked around to see if there was anything on my LG dvd-rom drive...seeing if others got it to work on a mac...n yep it has :D

[disciple]

RBrowserLite - FREE FTP Client for Mac OS X

Meteorologist - Weather App

Beachball - Cursor changer

Curator - Image Display and Organization Application

PixelNhance - Image Enhancement Application

LimeWire X - P2P client

Goldberg X - Image & movie viewer with some image editing capabilities

KoalaCalc - Scientific, statistical, conversion calculator

Taco HTML Edit - Fully featured HTML editor with tag coloring

FruitMenu - a haxie that customizes and enhances Apple and contextual menus in Mac OS X

ClearDock - a haxie that changes the Dock background on Mac OS X 10.2

Metallifizer - a haxie that adds or removes brushed metal background in Cocoa applications on Mac OS X 10.2

[Silvorgold]

Originally posted by disciple

Beachball - Cursor changer

lol i wont really forget where to look when i get my mac :p..im like "i'll probably forget where that cursor changer download will be by the time i'll get my mac.."

[Island Roots]

What's a good FTP client? I've tried that RBrowser one but I don't care for it very much. Also, I'd like if it was free. :)

[Gator]

What's a good FTP client? I've tried that RBrowser one but I don't care for it very much. Also, I'd like if it was free. :)

Transmit

[frod]

this may have been posted earlier but i could not find it so i will ask here.

can i play svcd and vcd encoded mpeg files in os x, and what about .vob's? if so, how? what do i need, etc...

thanks for the help.

[Nominell]

What's a good FTP client?  I've tried that RBrowser one but I don't care for it very much.  Also, I'd like if it was free. :)

Transmit

Interarchy :whistle:

[Nominell]

this may have been posted earlier but i could not find it so i will ask here.

can i play svcd and vcd encoded mpeg files in os x, and what about .vob's? if so, how? what do i need, etc...

thanks for the help.

Yes, you can play most formats in Quicktime which comes with OS X, as far as I've tried it worked with all my VCD's, but it's not a VCD player as such, if you want something built just for those, you should check out this, or go check macupdate, filetracker, download.com or Apple's download section for similar apps... Unfortunately I haven't a clue what a .vob file is, so I can't answer that one, sorry.

[frod]

a vob file is usually a direct decode of a dvd data file. so therefore it is mpeg2 so should play in anything that plays svcd encoded files, heh. thanks for the info by the way.

woo, checked out that site and found this on the main page:

About SuperVCD Playback

If you purchase and install the Apple Quicktime MPEG2 Component, you can play SuperVCDs. The Apple MPEG2 Component is a high performace decoder that provides great playback performance even on a G3 Macintosh. To purchase the Apple Quicktime MPEG2 Component, go to store.apple.com, click the Apple Software link in the left hand column under the Software and Books heading, then scroll down to the item titled "QT 6 MPEG-2 Playback - Mac OS X $19.99".

so, looks like quicktime can play the files if i just buy that component ;). maybe i should stick to the free vlc client. hehe

[Steve]

i was Suprised the software was So small! $20.00 for something that size is pretty ANNOYING! ... kinda M$ like with the "mp3 creation" packs and poop like that! Shame Apple, SHAME!

Neyo

[frod]

yeah, that's a pretty small thing to pay $20 for :/. oh well

[Chad]

I'll bump this up since I have forgotten some of the good links, and for the "new kids on the block" :blink: :whistle: