[nedski]

Hi Guys

I'm in the process of buying an iMac and wondered what you considered the best programs to put on it? PAID or FREE.

Reading all the comments, I'm really looking forward to trying out Coda so that's a given and I just couldn't do without Firefox (although do Safarai have equivalent web development plugins?)

Which email client do you use? Photo editing software? Any little widgets I should try out? And do all mac users use iTunes?

Anyway I should have it by the end of the week. I used to swear that I'd never leave a PC but I guess I've now come over to the "dark side".

[Guezala]

I am a mac gal. I use:

Smultron http://smultron.sourceforge.net/ for coding (free),

Inkscape http://www.inkscape.org/ for vector images (free),

GIMP http://www.gimp.org/ for image editing (free),

CrossOver http://www.codeweavers.com/products/ for testing in IE and using windows related programs (paid but I'm still on free trial atm)

Audium for instant messaging http://adium.im/ (free)

XAMPP for local server testing etc http://www.apachefri...g/en/xampp.html (free)

CuteFTP Mac pro for ftp http://www.cuteftp.c...CFRM_lAodxxYBww (paid)

iantivirus http://www.iantivirus.com/ (free)

[cibgraphics]

This is my set up:

Graphics:

Raster - Photoshop CS5 (paid)
Vector - Illustrator CS5 (paid)
Page Layout - InDesign CS5 (paid)

Web Dev:

Text Editor - Textmate (paid)
FTP - Flow (paid)
Local Server - Mamp (free)
IE Testing - PC Laptop
Wireframes - OmniGraffle Pro (paid)
Virtual Hosts - Virtual Host X (free and paid)... I know how to do virtual hosts by hand, but this is quicker and easier.

Other programs I use for web dev - Flash Catalyst CS5, Flash Pro CS5, Flash Builder CS5, Premiere CS5, After Effects CS5, and of course Bridge CS5 (all paid)

Mail - Apple Mail (free and already on your Mac)

Fonts - Linotype FontExplorer X (free, thought there is a updated paid one)

Instant Messaging - Skype (free), and Audium (free)

Screen Recording - iShowU HD Pro (paid)



And yes Safari has web dev tools already built in. You need to activate the Develop menu in the Prefs. It also has a built in "Firebug" like app called Web Inspector.

[andyl]

I would suggest waiting till late October before buying the iMac - Apple often update the Macs inside and out during these months and the last iMac update was last October I believe. They often won't mention the upcoming changes at all to avoid you doing exactly what I've described - putting off your purchase.

The following list consists of the main programs I use all day every day on my iMac, I also often dual-boot Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro using VMWare Fusion:

Coda for all web programming, there's nothing like it
Mail (or Apple Mail) for emails
Google Chrome for browsing - I usually assume all Firefox/IE/Safari users are just users who haven't tried Chrome!
iTunes for music since I have iPods and iPhones
XAMPP for local web-server
Photoshop for graphics
Skype for IM

For the rest, there's Textedit or iPhoto. I also have MS Office for those important documents/powerpoints.

I'd strongly suggest downloading iStat Pro for your dashboard (a widget) - it's very useful/informative.

[Frost Tear]

The recently released Safari 5 has introduced extensions that developers can create. Should see some interesting ones soon.

[nedski]

Lots of great info here folks, which is really appreciated.

Now for my big question (hey you can tell I've been a pc user) ...... is it really necessary to run anti-virus on a Mac? I see that Guezala states that she uses iantivirus but the rest of you don't mention anything unless I've missed it. I've just had a quick look at iantivirus and it seems to be the mac version offered by PCTools, who I have been using for the last 3 years on my pc.

Yet is it really worth running it?

[andyl]

nedski, on 14 June 2010 - 09:45 AM, said:

is it really necessary to run anti-virus on a Mac?

No.

Reason: There are so few viruses for UNIX systems (you could say there are no viruses since you'll only find one if you're looking for one). However, a common misconception of this is that Macs can't get viruses. That's not true; and soon enough the day will come when producers of these malicious scripts will turn on the UNIX community too. The reason there aren't many today is simply due to the disgracefully low market share UNIX operating systems account for in the world.

[craftedpixelz]

Coding - Coda (Can't live without it)
FTP - Transmit 4 (From the makers of Coda)
Mail - Apple Mail
Web Server - MAMP
Media Player -Boxee
IM Client - Adium
Music App - iTunes

[Will @ A9K]

Adobe Photoshop + Illustrator CS4 for the image stuff

Textwrangler for text editing

Forklift for my FTPing bits and pieces

Audacity for editing audio

Logic 9 for audio composition

IMovie for fast video editing

Thats my day.

[Guezala]

I run the antivirus in the background but lol never do anything with it. Prob don't need it tbh!

[ArchDesignLabs]

Personally if you are getting an imac use:

Skype or ichat for chatting not adium because i wont support your camera so no video chat

I love Textmate for coding but TextWrangler is free and has been equally amazing

Dont run antivirus... thats just asking for issues

Would never leave itunes, iphoto, or imovie either great products

Then Photoshop and InDesign are a must


Adam at ArchDesignLabs

[OliverB]

Don't forget Open Office for word docs, spreadsheets etc. It's just like Microsoft Office but free.

Also I find Drop Box quite useful for transferring the odd file.

[MacDesign]

nedski, on 14 June 2010 - 09:45 AM, said:

Lots of great info here folks, which is really appreciated.

Now for my big question (hey you can tell I've been a pc user) ...... is it really necessary to run anti-virus on a Mac? I see that Guezala states that she uses iantivirus but the rest of you don't mention anything unless I've missed it. I've just had a quick look at iantivirus and it seems to be the mac version offered by PCTools, who I have been using for the last 3 years on my pc.

Yet is it really worth running it?

Generally with the Mac OS environment an antivirus is not necessary but some mac users would still run an antivirus. I personally use an antivirus to scan PC files coming from other clients and not really to be used for the Mac environment. Also, I use it to scan "outside invaders" trying to get into your system when you're using the internet. It blocks out unknown entries by monitoring your internet connection from attempts to access your mac without your permission.

[Georgew]

iAntivirus tends to end up using 100% of a processor core after a while. I have it for start up, let it do a run, then disable it to stop it wasting a core.
Coda and textmate are good buys. Textwrangler is a free texteditor.
Alfred App is a great quick launch tool for free.
Filezilla is a free ftp, Flow is a paid ftp but is styled like OSX.

[Moomy]

I really like ActyMac DutyWatch. This program has a lot of functions.
DutyWatch is a computer monitoring and recording program that is capable of capturing every program used, every website visited, every keystroke made, even every instant message chat.
http://www.actymac.com/dutywatch

[m2hjessica]

Hello,

Thanks for all the details.

[hitu]

as for me I prefer to use ProteMac KeyBag as a keylogger

[amon64]

If you're in the UK Spotify is good (free streaming music app). If you play guitar Capo v2 is also very nice as a phrase trainer.

[EmmaL]

don't forgot to use some security software for your Mac, such as parental controls software

[zed]

EmmaL, on 21 April 2011 - 05:58 AM, said:

don't forgot to use some security software for your Mac, such as parental controls software

why would they need parental controls software?

[zed]

oh actually it's just more spam. Got to 26 posts of absolute nonsense and now can add a link. This forum really has gone to pot.

[SmuJ]

CyberDuck - FTP Transfer = FREE

[jerry91]

adobe adobe adobe.. >>> and adobe

[NerdyDesigner]

I recently got into macs and I cant live without

For Coding - Coda (I love this program!)
FTP - Transmit or Coda
Mail - Apple Mail but I have been trying out PostBox
Web Server - MAMP
IM Client - Trillian
Video Player - VLC
Music App - iTunes & Spotify (paid for as I have on my phone also)

And Adobe Photoshop CS5

This post has been edited by NerdyDesigner: 09 May 2011 - 04:06 PM

[MancunianCreative]

Coding - Coda
FTP - CyberDuck
Mail - MacMail
Web Server - MAMP
IM - Skype (hellfirehowson if you wanna add me)
Video Player - VLC
Music App - iTunes
Graphics - Adobe Photoshop CS5
Vectors - Inkscape

I have Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Rockmelt installed, I don't play with IE.

iWork, but also Office for Mac.

Dropbox and a cool program called iProcrastinate, which you can use for organising where you are upto with jobs, and add files to them jobs. Brilliant.

[Georgew]

TextMate. (Cheaper than Coda with some better features)
Alfred.

[alistairfellowes]

For graphic and web designers Adobe CS is always a good purchase. If you're a student, you should be able to get it much cheaper.

[nWebDesign]

I'm looking into getting a mac book pro to mobilize my development and get into iphone development, but I'm just worried about .net development as its the main source of my income. Is their any native mac tools for that or will i have to just install parallels?

[Angelo]

For coding: Coda! and recently - Espresso
Main browser: Safari
Second browser: Google Chrome
Music: iTunes
Mail: Mail (the integrated mail client in to the mac os x)
Photo organizer: iPhoto
Office apps: MS Office
Web design and photo editing: Adobe Photoshop
Local web server: MAMP
Favorite movie player: Movist and QuickTime
App Uninstaller: App cleaner
Virtual Machine: Virtual Box
Twitter client: Tweetie
Ftp client: Fetch
CD Burner: Toast Titanium
and XCODE (i'm learning objective-c now ).