Let's put together a master list for new users
[deleted]
Posted Dec 16, 2009, 7:20 PM UTC · edited
13670
Under the "nerd" section - Fluid for site-specific browsers (http://fluidapp.com/)
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nice one! I hadn't heard of that one myself
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It is brilliant. The best feature I enjoy about it is the ability to turn my Gmail into a desktop-feeling client. It supports userscripts, so you can add any javascript functionality to it. That plus the "multiple inboxes" lab and some careful filters makes Gmail way more useful than Mail.app for me.
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Does accessing it via a fluidapp still support HTML5 for offline mail?
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I'm not sure, I haven't seen anything about HTML5 for offline mail. I modified the Gears source code to not check for the OS version on SL and it seems to be working okay so far... unless it automagically transitioned me to an HTML5 system and I'm not aware of it. Is there a way to check?
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Another one I just thought of - Skitch for screenshots and quick picture sharing.
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Won't Grab do the same thing?
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Grab will take the screen shots, but won't edit them, allow for text labels, arrows, shapes, etc, and also won't do a one-click upload. Hence my preference for skitch.
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Let's add Hazel under Nerd.
The description of Adium should read IM client, as it talks to a lot more than just AIM.
I also prefer Mplayer Extended to VLC.
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good call, thanks
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any reason you prefer Mplayer (for the summary)
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Appcleaner - freeware application uninstaller.
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TrueCrypt - Encryption software.
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I've never used TrueCrypt, but Espionage is also great for that sort of thing.
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BetterTouchTool for loads of additional gestures on the Multitouch Touchpad and Magic Mouse.
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BetterTouchTool is amazing. I was initially disappointed with multitouch on both the touchpad and magic mouse. This gives me everything I ever wanted.
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Amazing on magic mouse.
What gestures do you have setup? I will share mine.
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[deleted]
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haha, in all fairness, the nerd stuff is still simple, but just more than an intermediate user would use
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Why they had to choose the project name 'synergy', I don't know, since a project that originally started at SGI was named synergy long before... And IMHO the SGI synergy project is more useful (sort of an inverse KVM over IP).
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[deleted]
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I'm going to leave this out for now since it's available on windows as well. I'm trying to get things that are mac specific. I'll put it in tho if others think it's a good idea
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[deleted]
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na, that's a good point. I'll add a section for "familiar" software. I'm trying to stick to free/cheap, so I'll use open office instead of MS office, but same thing really.
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Geektool under nerd Handbrake intermediate Candleair intermediate Onyx intermediate Little Snitch intermediate
That's just a few for now.
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the geektool website has a pretty retarded description...care to make a short summary for them?
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Display all sorts of information on your desktop, from local weather information, iTunes tracks, to logs and cpu usage.
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cool, thanks. Their description made me think they were about to ask me to send money to nigeria
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Handbrake doesn't rip dvds, it converts video of all sorts. Best video converter out there IMO.
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.prefs:
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AppTrap - Similar to AppCleaner
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Default Folder X - Great improvement to the open/save dialogs.
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RC Default App - Set the default application used for various file extensions, file types, MIME types, etc.
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Fan Control or smcFanControl - Set the fans speed.
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SmartSpeed - Dynamically sets the sleep state of your machine.
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USB Overdrive - Device driver that handles any USB mouse / trackball / joystick / gamepad / media keyboard and any Bluetooth mouse from any manufacturer and lets you configure them either globally or on a per-application, per-device basis.
Apps:
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1Password - Password/information manager.
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Burn - CD/DVD burner.
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ClipMenu or Jumpcut or Quicksilver's clipboard module - Clipboard manager.
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Evom - Movie converter.
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Devonthink or Journler or Together - Document Managers.
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Textmate or [BBEdit](http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/] or Coda or *Espresso - Text Editors.
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Afloat - Window management.
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MainMenu - Maintenance tool.
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Max - Audio converter.
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Mind Node - Mind Mapping.
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NetNewsWire - RSS Reader.
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Skim - PDF Reader.
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Spotify - Music streaming.
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The Hit List or Things - Task Managers
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Typinator - Automatic text replacement.
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Viscosity - OpenVPN client
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Delibar - Delicious client
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MarsEdit - Wordpress client.
Must Have: Path Finder - File browser and manager.
EDIT: added some more
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Bonus points for smcfancontrol, especially if you have an original MacBook Pro. Those babies overheat like crazy.
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What, no Papers?
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Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! (my favorite).
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added. Thanks.
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I was a long time Quicksilver fan and evangelist but I recently switched to Alcor's new project, Google Quick Search Box. It's not as feature-rich as QS but feels more stable and is still under development, unlike QS (yes I'm aware of the branches).
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I decided to buy Launchbar when I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Quicksilver was brilliant, and Alcor/Nicholas Jitkoff is clearly a talented coder; but I'm not about to go through getting used to another free project he's likely to neglect or abandon.
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He 'abandoned' it because he was hired by Google. Getting paid to code > not getting paid to code.
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I know why he did it, but plenty of people continue to at least maintain free or F/OSS projects they started after becoming employed. Hell, he could have even started charging for it and I think people would have gladly paid.
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Beginner -
- Bean - Free word processor for those who didn't buy iWork
Intermediate -
- ClipTool - Free Multi-Clipboard functionality
- 1Password - Commercial password/login tool makes life easy
- TimeMachine Editor - Edits the interval between TimeMachine back-ups
Advanced -
- iStat Menus - Complete reporting of all hardware resources status
- FinderPop - Contextual menu tool
- TinkerTool - Allows control of hidden OS features
Useful Sites -
- Macsurfer.com - Mac/Apple news aggregator
- Macupdate.com - Reliable place to find shareware/freeware/commercial updates
- DealMac.com - Go broke saving money
- Macsales.com - OtherWorld Computing is a great vendor of Mac supplies
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How'd you miss TextMate and MacPorts in the "Nerd" section?
Also, I'd throw in Perian, MPlayer OS X Extended and/or Movist in if you're including VLC, since they all have much less shitty UIs than VLC and just as universally compatible (except Perian, where WMV is missing for some reason). Also, they're not having their UIs rewritten slowly by a tiny team into an equally useless form, unlike VLC.
I'd also throw in my hat for Secrets, basically a giant hidden preferences magic thing, and either Pixelmator (shareware and awesome) or Seashore (free and rudimentary) for quick image editing.
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Textwrangler for text editing: http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/
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I'd add glims and/or saft to that list. Makes Safari my browser of choice, instead of just "less shitty than firefox."
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what do they do and why do you say that it makes safari your choice browser?
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Glims and Saft add a lot of "missing" features to Safari. The ones that I really like are session restore, undo closed tab, choose where new tabs open (right of current, rightmost, etc).
I'd probably recommend Glims just because it does most of what Saft does, but it's free.
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awesome. added.
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I'd probably recommend Glims just because it does most of what Saft does, but it's free.
Is it my imagination, or was Saft once free, too? I could have sworn I used it for a while, and I'm too much of a cheapskate to pay for software.
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Saft is free, but it nags the shit out of you until you pay for it.
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Not sure if free was a requirement, but either way DaisyDisk is still fantastic. Intermediate?
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nope free wasn't a requirement. I'll put disk inventory X in there as well for the freebie
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This is just for fun, but you can download a seismometer widget that will pool data from your sudden motion sensor link
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This list simply contributes to bloat. I far prefer a minimal approach to doing most things in OSX because I strongly dislike running 3rd party apps when the functions already exist in the OS.
Perian, caffeine and adium are incredibly handy. But if people want to discover great open source mac software then just send them to places like http://opensourcemac.org/ where they can pick what they need not what we think they may need.
The best advice you can really give a new mac user is that you don't need to add a hundred pieces of third party software for your computer to work and be maintained. I am very productive on this machine, and do a wide range of tasks from super-simple web browsing, managing photos, and writing text docs all the way to misc development and media production.
Here is what I am running as extras regularly:
google notifier
caffeine
adium
activity monitor
+perian (doesn't really "run")
Here are the extras I run when I need to:
+stickies
handbrake
mariner write
skype
unrarx
transmission
All of the work specific stuff I have:
CS4
The Mac/iPhone SDK
The OS is laid out very well and if you want to plug your machine up with software, go right ahead. But just know that most things you will need to do are built right into the os. As a new user, know disk utility, system preferences and activity monitor. Also, I would encourage you to make a folder in your documents called Reference and make yourself a txt library of hard-to-remember handy information like terminal commands and how to do certain tasks. (note the date and OS version in every txt file)
e.g. how to enable php5 on the preinstalled apache server. how to enable xray view on folders. how to style your dock on the bottom as if it were on the side. blah blah blah.
The Unarchiver is vastly superior to Unrarx in my experience. Also handles 7z files.
I haven't had to un7z anything lately. (in the past year)
But I think I have a command line tool for it.